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Alcestis Hardcover – February 1, 2010

by Katharine Beutner (Author)

17 customer reviews

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In Greek myth, Alcestis is known as the ideal wife; she loved her husband so much that she died and went to the underworld in his place. In this vividly-imagined debut, Katharine Beutner gives voice to the woman behind the ideal and reveals the part of the story that’s never been told: What happened to Alcestis in the three days she spent in the underworld?

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Beutner's debut tackles the Greek myth of Alcestis, who so loved her husband that she sacrificed herself to Hermes in his place. Beutner's retelling, set in ancient Greece, involves a more complex character: her Alcestis is a misfit who has deeply mourned the loss of her sister Hippothoe since childhood. Through Alcestis's eyes, Beutner provides a cagey look at men and gods, driving her narrative into the Underworld after Alcestis's husband, Admetus, proves so afraid of facing his own death that he demands a replacement. Alcestis goes instead, not for romance or martyrdom, but to find her dead sister. While hunting the land of the dead, Alcestis sheds the good girl identity she's begrudgingly worn her whole life and finds her fate tied to those of Persephone and Hades; eventually, she learns much about gods and men (especially from stubborn, simple Heracles). Beutner renders her multilayered heroine with beauty and delicacy, and concerns herself with no less than the intricacies of the soul; unfortunately, an abrupt ending sucks the wind out of Beutner's sails. (Feb.)
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From Booklist

Beutner has elevated a relatively minor character in Greek mythology to a major player. Taking center stage in this debut novel is Alcestis, the fabled “good wife” who sacrificed herself in order to save her much loved husband, King Admetus. In this reworking of the classic legend, a decidedly more complex and restless Alcestis is provided with an intriguing backstory involving her childhood and the untimely death of her favorite sister, Hippothoe. When Admetus is too cowardly to face his own death, Alcestis, hopeful of reuniting with Hippothoe, agrees to take his place in the Underworld. It is here in death that Alcestis wrestles with the true nature of love and loss, as she falls under the seductive spell of Persephone. Perched precariously between two worlds, she finds she belongs to neither when Heracles, her would-be rescuer, declares his intention to deliver her back to her husband. Beutner spices up this classic tale with a decidedly Sapphic flavor. --Margaret Flanagan

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Product details

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Soho Press (February 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1569476179
ISBN-13: 978-1569476178
Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.1 x 8.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,809,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #808 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Myths & Legends > Greek & Roman
- #9357 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Historical > Fantasy
- #16901 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Mythology & Folk Tales

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Customer Reviews

3.7 out of 5 stars

5 star		41%
4 star		24%
3 star		23%
2 star		12%
1 star		0%

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Top Customer Reviews

Loved it.

ByDax Murrayon May 29, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Slow to start, but it picked up very quickly. I love how the theme of grief plays out. I love how the story explores the ability of women to tell their own stories, and how it explores the sexuality of the characters.

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Weird Sororal Obsession

ByMiyabeajisaion July 16, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The beginning was strong. After she enters the underworld the strange relationship with Persephone was interesting, but the obsession with her sister was distracting and made the story overlong.

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One of my favorite books this year!

ByPatriciaon June 8, 2011

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I loved this book! I thought it was well written and the author did a good job in bringing to life the complicated relationship between fickle Greek Gods and their mortals...
The only thing I wish the author had done differently was to really convince me that Alcestis fell madly in love with Persephone in just three days...(so much so that she didn't want to leave...) I wish the author could have elaborated more on this. Other than that, great book! I think someone should turn this into a play, it would be awesome!

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Ancient Greek Myth Turned Acid Trip

ByVictoriaon October 4, 2010

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I love me my Greek myths. Persephone's abduction is explanation for seasons? Yes please. Athena punishes master weaver Arachne by turning her into a spyder who's cursed to "weave" forever? Outstanding.
When I cam across Alcestis, an entire novel centered around a Greek myth, I thought, "yahtzee!" And to be fair, for the first half of the book, the author delivers: mortals co-existing with gods, gods manipulating mortals' lives, etc. However, about halfway through the book things start to get really trippy. To be fair, any Greek myth is obviously laced with magical realism and imagination benders but in the case of Beutner's Alcestis, it is flat out bizarre. For about 100 pages Alcestis is just wandering around the underworld playing a sexual hide and go-seek with the gods and making non-sensical conversation with ghosts. It's like the author discovered hallucinogenic drugs in the midst of writing and decided the novel should double as a visions journal.
Perhaps my expectations for the book were a little exaggerated but when all was said and done Alcestis was less than divine.

0Comment 6 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Starts strong then becomes self indulgently dreary

ByMoheon February 4, 2011

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Alcestis is an interesting story, and Beutner gives a good go of it for awhile. But after Alcestis's descent into the underworld it becomes dreary enough to make the reader long to drink the waters of the Lethe. Despite some very good ideas this novel goes nowhere and the end is a fizzle followed by the sort of epilogue that belongs in a the sort of didactic juvenile literature so eager to make sure its message is made clear that it shows no confidence in either itself or its reader.

(What follows contains spoilers)

The flaws are mostly to do with the nature of Alcestis's relationship with Persephone. The idea of pairing Admetus's relationship with the divine Apollo is brilliant, but in the end Alcestis becomes just like her husband, a helpless and willing pawn of the gods. Except that her stereotypical relationship with Persephone is really hard to believe. Persephone is a goddess, yet here she is a tragic seductress right out of a 1950s era Sapphic potboiler. This is combined with the hackneyed romantic trope of the girl in love with death. That this personification of death is a distaff one does not really elevate this above the sort of Victorian death worship exemplified by Alberto Casella Death takes a Holiday.

As an additional complaint, Pelopia, Alcestis's, dramatically unnecessary, brother in this novel, is in every other version of this story, her older sister. Which the feminine name would seem to indicate.

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Dark, dark, dark!

ByE. McKechnieon November 8, 2015

Format: Paperback

I wouldn't spent ten bucks on this. Spoiler Alert!!!! Don't read if you don't want to know! I enjoyed the initial 2/3 of the book and the plot seemed to be perking on well, and then we get to the part of the story where she gives her life for her husband. Now she's in Hades and Persephone is putting the moves on her, she fights, fights, fights it, then boom! suddenly she's in love, for the first time with Persephone and doesn't want to go home. I majored in the Classics in college and she got the facts right about how the land of the dead is essential lacking in light; the Greeks allied light to life itself. But this sudden plot twist left our heroine bitter, unhappy and hating her husband (who wasn't all that bad). Hercules rescues her and brings her back to the land of the living, she returns to her husband, bitter, unhappy and dark. And then the story just ends. It felt like the author was tired of writing and just slapped an ending on the book, leaving the reader with a dark feeling. All Alcestis has to look forward to is to die again, but the shades in Hades don't recover their youth or beauty and even the heroes in the Elysian fields are without hope. She did get one thing wrong, the waters of Lethe do bring forgetfulness to the dead, just before they are reincarnated and sent back to life. Her dead just drift, without thought or memories, alone in the dark.