The Sappho Companion [Hardcover]

Margaret Reynolds (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 9, 2001

Born around 630 BC on the Greek Island of Lesbos, Sappho is now regarded as the greatest lyrical poet of Greece. Her work survives only in fragments, yet her influence extends throughout Western literature, fuelled by the speculations and romances which have gathered around her name, her story, her sexuality. The Sappho Companion brings together many different kinds of work, ranging from blue-stocking appreciations to juicy fantasies. We see her image change, recreated in Ovid's poetry and Boccaccio's tales, in translations by Pope, Rossetti and Swinburne, Baudelaire, and H.D., in the modern versions of Eavan Boland, Carol Rumens, and Jeanette Winterson. Artists, too, have felt Sappho's power, and The Sappho Companion contains a rich variety of illustrations: classical statues and pre-Raphaelite paintings, Roman mosaics, and Romantic pornography.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The ways in which this sparkling, unexpected anthology will be classified in libraries and bookstores--lesbian studies; classical studies--will strike anyone who reads it as absurd. A sweeping look at the persistence of the Greek poet Sappho in the artistic and popular imagination, The Sappho Companion draws on everything from the Roman myths of Sappho to the eighteenth century rediscovery of Herculaneum, with its intriguing papyrus fragments, to Pat Califia's 1980 lesbian S/M book, Sapphistry: The Book of Lesbian Sexuality (out of print). The only book that compares to The Sappho Companion in its breadth and imaginative vigor is Charles Sprawson's lyrical book on swimming, Haunts of the Black Masseur: The Swimmer as Hero, in which the swan-diving Sappho makes an appearance. You don't need to know a thing about Sappho to relish this book, but for true enthusiasts, it makes a good companion volume for Yopie Prins's Victorian Sappho, Paige DuBois's Sappho is Burning, and Anne Carson's brilliant meditation, Eros: The Bittersweet. --Regina Marler

From Publishers Weekly

Hailing from the island of Lesbos, which has subsequently lent its name in her honor to a good cause, the Greek poet Sappho, who lived in the 7th century B.C., has inspired centuries of admiration for her transcendent poems, which have only survived in fragments. A British teacher, critic and broadcaster with a wide range of cultural references at her disposal, Reynolds makes this reader's guide to Sappho's world and work a delightfully erudite one. She offers a selection of sapphic fragments in the original Greek, with thought-provoking contrasting translations from a plethora of (often male) writers, ranging from 18th century Englishmen like Tobias Smollett and John Addison, through 19th century efforts by John Addington Symonds and Alfred Lord Tennyson, to more modern versions by William Carlos Williams and Guy Davenport. Following the works are 14 chapters of excerpts from literary endeavors inspired by Sappho ("The Sapphic Sublime," "Daughter of de Sade," "Modernist Sappho," "Swingers and Sisters"), from ancient writers like Catullus and Ovid to the medieval works of Boccaccio and Christine de Pisan, right up to Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson. Reynolds explains that English speakers pronounce the poet's name with "soft sibilants and faded f's" but "if you hear a native speaker say her name, she comes across spitting and popping hard p's. Ppppsappoppo. We have eased off her name, made her docile and sliding, where she is really difficult, diffuse, many-syllabled, many-minded, vigorous and hard." This lively book, scholarly, yet blessedly minus any footnotes, is sure to give a wider view of this primary writer, and provide easier access to a forbiddingly remote land and work.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1 edition (June 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312239246
• ISBN-13: 978-0312239244
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,385,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars NOT yawn!, February 11, 2003

By 

rottenbook (Bloomington, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sappho Companion (Paperback)

I don't know what the previous reviewer is talking about; I loved this book. Granted, I am no scholar of Sappho. Although I have read various translations of her poetry in the past, I do not read Greek and cannot comment upon whether Reynolds' research is accurate. However, given her amazing previous work (editing Aurora Leigh, the Penguin Book of Lesbian Short Stories, etc.) I am inclined to trust her (and I like her writing style anyway).

For me, this book was the perfect introduction to Sappho. It includes historical background followed by many of Sappho's fragments in a variety of translations. But that's just the beginning: Reynolds goes on to show how Sappho has been imagined/created by literature up to the present day. She anthologizes a variety of poems, plays, and fictions inspired by Sappho. It is amazing to see how, though so little of her writing survived, she has remained a titaness in our imaginations. Each literary generation has reinvented and recreated her. Reading Jeanette Winterson's amazing story "The Poetics of Sex" (narrated by a modern-day Sappho) fills me with hope and joy at the potential for lesbian creativity that is Sappho's legacy. I also appreciated the inclusion of works of art depicting Sappho through the ages. Although they are in black and white, they are an exquisite visual touch to this beautiful volume (the cover art is amazing as well).

I urge you not to judge this book by one bad review. It is a book to be perused at leisure, to leaf through in times of anxious sorrow and contemplative joy. Buy or borrow a copy and judge it for yourself.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All About Sappho, April 10, 2009

By 

Shauna "Musician" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Sappho Companion (Paperback)

If you're a Sappho fan, you get everything in this book: her poems and fragments in the original Greek, followed by renderings by poets from Catullus and Ovid onward; her history, as much as is known; commentary on her by writers through the ages; and others' poems based on her work. The extant body of Sappho's work is so slender that the heart aches for what was lost; but these musings, analyses, and celebrations down through the ages help round out our image of her.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Sappho" the Ten's Muse, July 5, 2008

By 

Donna M. Swindells "Art House Diva" (Richmond,Va.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Sappho Companion (Paperback)

Are you wondering about the poet Sappho" the poet the Greek & Roman people revered and respected for her beautiful poetry? Read this book, it unlocks the doors on the life & beauty of the talented "Sappho" a wonder with words that can touch or pierce your heart.
Blessings,
Donna Swindells