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Reading this book about Sappho one reviews the early history of Greece, Lesbo, and Crete. The fiction is complete with ideas of greek myths.
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Sappho's Leap
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From the author of 'Fear of Flying', 'Sappho's Leap' is an imaginative journey back 2,600 years to inhabit the mind of the greatest love poet the world has ever known, taking Sappho from Delphi to Egypt, and even to the Land of the Amazons and the shadowy realm of Hades.
null pages, Paperback
First published January 1,2003
This edition
- Format
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null pages, Paperback
- Published
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January 1, 2004 by Arcadia Books
- ISBN
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9781900850919
- ASIN
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1900850915
- Language
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English
Characters More characters
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Sappho Of Lesbos
Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the canonical list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain...
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Aesop
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About the author
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Erica Jong—novelist, poet, and essayist—has consistently used her craft to help provide women with a powerful and rational voice in forging a feminist consciousness. She has published 21 books, including eight novels, six volumes of poetry, six books of non-fiction and numerous articles in magazines and newspapers such as the New York Times, the Sunday Times of London, Elle, Vogue, and the New York Times Book Review.
In her groundbreaking first novel, Fear of Flying (which has sold twenty-six million copies in more than forty languages), she introduced Isadora Wing, who also plays a central part in three subsequent novels—How to Save Your Own Life, Parachutes and Kisses, and Any Woman's Blues. In her three historical novels—Fanny, Shylock's Daughter, and Sappho's Leap—she demonstrates her mastery of eighteenth-century British literature, the verses of Shakespeare, and ancient Greek lyric, respectively. A memoir of her life as a writer, Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life, came out in March 2006. It was a national bestseller in the US and many other countries. Erica's latest book, Sugar in My Bowl, is an anthology of women writing about sex, has been recently released in paperback.
Erica Jong was honored with the United Nations Award for Excellence in Literature. She has also received Poetry magazine's Bess Hokin Prize, also won by W.S. Merwin and Sylvia Plath. In France, she received the Deauville Award for Literary Excellence and in Italy, she received the Sigmund Freud Award for Literature. The City University of New York awarded Ms. Jong an honorary PhD at the College of Staten Island.
Her works have appeared all over the world and are as popular in Eastern Europe, Japan, China, and other Asian countries as they have been in the United States and Western Europe. She has lectured, taught and read her work all over the world.
A graduate of Barnard College and Columbia University's Graduate Faculties where she received her M.A. in 18th Century English Literature, Erica Jong also attended Columbia's graduate writing program where she studied poetry with Stanley Kunitz and Mark Strand. In 2007, continuing her long-standing relationship with the university, a large collection of Erica's archival material was acquired by Columbia University's Rare Book & Manuscript Library, where it will be available to graduate and undergraduate students. Ms. Jong plans to teach master classes at Columbia and also advise the Rare Book Library on the acquisition of other women writers' archives.
Calling herself “a defrocked academic,” Ms. Jong has partly returned to her roots as a scholar. She has taught at Ben Gurion University in Israel, Bennington College in the US, Breadloaf Writers' Conference in Vermont and many other distinguished writing programs and universities. She loves to teach and lecture, though her skill in these areas has sometimes crowded her writing projects. “As long as I am communicating the gift of literature, I'm happy,” Jong says. A poet at heart, Ms. Jong believes that words can save the world.
In her groundbreaking first novel, Fear of Flying (which has sold twenty-six million copies in more than forty languages), she introduced Isadora Wing, who also plays a central part in three subsequent novels—How to Save Your Own Life, Parachutes and Kisses, and Any Woman's Blues. In her three historical novels—Fanny, Shylock's Daughter, and Sappho's Leap—she demonstrates her mastery of eighteenth-century British literature, the verses of Shakespeare, and ancient Greek lyric, respectively. A memoir of her life as a writer, Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life, came out in March 2006. It was a national bestseller in the US and many other countries. Erica's latest book, Sugar in My Bowl, is an anthology of women writing about sex, has been recently released in paperback.
Erica Jong was honored with the United Nations Award for Excellence in Literature. She has also received Poetry magazine's Bess Hokin Prize, also won by W.S. Merwin and Sylvia Plath. In France, she received the Deauville Award for Literary Excellence and in Italy, she received the Sigmund Freud Award for Literature. The City University of New York awarded Ms. Jong an honorary PhD at the College of Staten Island.
Her works have appeared all over the world and are as popular in Eastern Europe, Japan, China, and other Asian countries as they have been in the United States and Western Europe. She has lectured, taught and read her work all over the world.
A graduate of Barnard College and Columbia University's Graduate Faculties where she received her M.A. in 18th Century English Literature, Erica Jong also attended Columbia's graduate writing program where she studied poetry with Stanley Kunitz and Mark Strand. In 2007, continuing her long-standing relationship with the university, a large collection of Erica's archival material was acquired by Columbia University's Rare Book & Manuscript Library, where it will be available to graduate and undergraduate students. Ms. Jong plans to teach master classes at Columbia and also advise the Rare Book Library on the acquisition of other women writers' archives.
Calling herself “a defrocked academic,” Ms. Jong has partly returned to her roots as a scholar. She has taught at Ben Gurion University in Israel, Bennington College in the US, Breadloaf Writers' Conference in Vermont and many other distinguished writing programs and universities. She loves to teach and lecture, though her skill in these areas has sometimes crowded her writing projects. “As long as I am communicating the gift of literature, I'm happy,” Jong says. A poet at heart, Ms. Jong believes that words can save the world.
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Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 99 votes)
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Story: 4/5
n Audio narration: 5/5n
n
So, I'm starting to think that Greek mythology really isn't for me.
To be fair, this isn't 100% mythology. Sappho of Lesbos was a real celebrity in a real place/time, but because she lived in BC times, much of what's known about her is speculation. Only one of her famous poems even survived in its entirety; the rest of what we have is in fragments. A lot of this book is (highly researched) speculation by Erica Jong.
It was exceptionally well written. Jong was a real talent, and the story was very immersive in this setting. The culture popped off the pages.
Unfortunately, I didn't much care for this version of Sappho as a person. She was petty and shallow and a little ridiculous. Watching her continually make stupid choices was frustrating as all get-out. The narrative doesn't EXCUSE her flaws-- she's called out on her selfish naiveté quite a bit. But that doesn't make it any more enjoyable to read. Not to mention, the fact that this story was fairly steeped in realism yet kept cutting back to Zeus and Aphrodite was very jarring. I wish it had picked one route or the other-- be it fantastical or realistic.
I don't regret reading this, but a lot of it has to do with the reader's good voice. If I'd been reading the text instead of listening to the audio, I don't think I'd've finished it.
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I struggled with this a bit. Enjoyed it enough to finish it, but not my favourite of Jong's books.
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A very enjoyable novel. It is a very, very fictionalized narration of Sappho's life (the little that is known about her), but it entertains and makes the pages turn by themselves. A few things may not quite catch with the refined reader: the sudden mythical dimension she enters once escaped from Egypt (the journey into Hades, her meeting with the Amazons and the Centaurs) would've been a better narrative choice if the reader was left wondering those were simply visions of the great poet. Second, some twists not really in line with the plot (the multiple comebacks of a few main characters) and lastly, a certain redundancy when indulging in titillating details. For the rest, a valid read to have an insight of ancient Greece and its mythology.
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I had no idea who Sappho was when I chose this book. She's an ancient Greek poet, known as a muse and a devotee of Aphrodite. I enjoy Greek stories but this modern take on a lesser known Greek was too convoluted for my liking. A lot of eroticism that I felt didn't need to be there, perhaps that's the ancient way. The writing style is similar to the Odyssey, that's a plus, the rest was rather dull. So much potential to create a strong character but wasted by her longing and heartbrokenness over one man.
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This book was much more fanciful than I expected, which was not a bad thing at all. I am not sure if Sappho and Aesop were actually contemporaries but it was a fun read.
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I'm not too familiar with the legends of Sappho (or with Ancient Greek history/mythology in general), which is probably good based on other reviews. Without caring about historical accuracy, I thought the plot and characters were engaging. Definitely had Odyssey-esque elements to it, but not as detailed or mythical.
I listened to this as an audiobook and found it sufficiently paced; my experience may have been different had I been physically reading it.
[[Read for the 2024 PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: a book with the word "leap" in the title]]
I listened to this as an audiobook and found it sufficiently paced; my experience may have been different had I been physically reading it.
[[Read for the 2024 PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: a book with the word "leap" in the title]]
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I enjoyed reading this historical book about the time in which Sappho lived, with all the turbulent wars the Greeks participated in, and in which the sociocultural climate changed in a negative way for the position of women. It was my first introduction to the singer and poet Sappho, and it triggered a certain desire to read her original poems and to get to know her better.
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