Sappho History

MARGARET REYNOLDS is an academic, critic and broadcaster. Her 1992 edition of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh won the British Academy's Rose Mary Crawshay Prize. Her other books include Victorian Women Poets: An Anthology and The Penguin Book of Lesbian Short Stories. She is also the author of The Sappho Companion. Margaret Reynolds is Reader in English at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. Her radio series include Aria (BBC Radio 3), Classic Storylines (BBC Radio 4) and a new series of Adventures in Poetry (BBC Radio 4).

'The Sappho History is a compelling and original account of Sappho's cultural transformations over the past few centuries. At once lucid, learned, and creative, Margaret Reynolds's study powerfully demonstrates why this iconic figure has held such a strong pull on the imagination and emotions of such a wide range of writers, readers, and artists.' - Professor Kate Flint, Department of English, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA 'Sappho as symbol, as poet and muse, as poetic and personal possibility, is wonderfully worked in this subtly allusive, academically exciting and poetically powerfuly study.' The Times '...an extremely interesting book.' - Times Literary Supplement 'Her new book is an enjoyable introduction to what has to become an essential topic for classicists interested in reception, for scholars interested in Hellenism or classicism in European vernacular literature, and especially for feminists historians and queer theorists.' - Emily Wilson, London Review of Books 'This is a beautifully written, passionate and poetic book. It has important things to say about women's writing, about love, about lyric poetry, about myth and celebrity, and about elegy and loss. And it joins a growing number of books that demonstrate that Victorian Hellenism was no dusty, dry affair but complex and fascinating' - Jennifer Wallace, The Times Higher Education Supplement

• Introduction Mary Robinson's Attitudes Picturing Sappho Fragments of an Elegy The Woman Poet Sings Sappho's Last Song Poisonous Honey Sappho's Fatal Book Speaking Spaces Epilogue: Virginia's Sapphists Bibliography Index