“This is a work of fiction. Or possibly it is such a hybrid of imaginaries and intimate non-fictions, of speculative biographies and 'suggestions for short pieces' (…) as to have no recourse to a category at all.” In her afterword, Wynn Schwartz herself indicates how stylistically ambiguous her approach is. I would call it an example of very ingenious docu-fiction. In hundreds of short pieces (rarely more than a page long), Wynn-Schwartz portrays the lives of several dozen women from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century: very well-known figures pass by, such as Sarah Bernard, Colette and Viriginia Woolf, or also Nora Helmer from Ibsen's A Doll's House, but most of them are – at least to me – completely unknown women, especially Italian feminists.
I can imagine that many readers will not like Wynn Schwartz's style, because it is very dry, almost purely matter-of-fact and encyclopedic, and told by a collective personality ("we") that has a time-and- place-transcending agency, suggesting a movement of militant women and especially lesbians. And so not only the subordination of women in that period, and the open or covert struggle against it, comes into focus, but also the breaking of sexual conventions through the focus on women's love (also open or covert). And then the link with Sappho is not far to seek. Very subtly, but well thought out, Wynn Schwartz brings the impenetrable poetry of Sappho (we only have fragments of sentences from her entire oeuvre) to life.
Nicely done, for sure. But as far as I'm concerned, way too cerebral and therefore not really captivating or resonating. And inevitably, Wynn Schwartz has been very selective. Her selection of women she portrays is limited to aristocratic and bourgeois epigones, wealthy and privileged, and almost all of them writers, artists and actresses; a select club (almost exclusively European by the way). And, of course, it is also a conscious choice to interpret Sappho's poetry as lesbian, following the classical, 19th century interpretation; but historically this is not entirely uncontroversial, and from a gender perspective, in turn, this is a limitation. But hey, those might be snide comments from a heterosexual, older man. The biggest shortcoming of this book, however, is that the remarkable women who are portrayed, in my opinion, do not really come to life. Due to the deliberately fragmentary approach of Wynn Schwartz, they remain very ephemeral, unfortunately like Sappho herself. ( )

It took me until around halfway through the book, but I finally came around to this novel of fragmented fragments. I was at last settled into its choppy but regular rhythm and familiar enough with the surroundings, perhaps. The title may lead one to expect a wider lens but in fact it is focused on a very specific group of women, mostly upper class, mostly wealthy, in Italy and France in the decades preceding and following World War I who were active in the arts - literature, painting, dance, design - who could be imagined, who saw themselves, to be continuing in the artistic vein of Sappho. Who are individually lightly fictionally drawn, who are collectively the Sapphic chorus observing and commenting on each individual’s actions.

I read this due to its appearance on the Booker longlist and like some others on that list it addresses a topic that has already had plenty written about it, which can appear as a criticism, but for me there’s usually always room for someone new’s personal and well-written approach to the subject. This telling is cut up into chapters of short entries, usually 2-3 paragraphs long, increasingly it seemed to me as the book went on following a regularly progressing timeline (whereas the earlier chapters moved back and forth among years more often; I’d have to go back and check to see to what extent this impression is accurate).

In retrospect I see that I particularly enjoyed the entries for Virginia Woolf, so, here’s one such with which to end my impressions, which suggests both the struggle of these women against a restrictive society and within themselves:

VIRGINIA WOOLF, CASSANDRA, 1914

In the autumn of 1914 Virginia Woolf opened the newspaper. On the third page she was instructed that there had been no female of first-rate literary ability since Sappho; on the fourth she was assured that the war was utterly necessary and right. She sighed. She closed her eyes and pressed her hands to her temples. Then she opened her eyes, threw the newspaper onto the andirons, and began to write about Cassandra.

In those years Virginia Woolf published her first novel, but she also began to try to kill herself. Like us, she was desperate for someone to light the way to a future where we might see our lives unlatched before us like windows. Virginia Woolf knew that the newspapers would always insist that there were no more Sappho, only more wars. She invented a Cassandra for 1914. Cassandra was the one who saw everything and instead of sighing, screamed.

( )

Booker long-listed a couple of years back, this is an interesting piece of...historical fiction? The author has created a fictionalised account of the interactions between prominent Sapphists and feminists from the late 19th century through to the early 20th century, post WWI. They're an eclectic mix of artists, writers, actresses, playwrights, poets and activists, some very well known (Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West, Sarah Bernhard), others less known (at least to me anyway) such as the Irish architect Eileen Gray, Lina Poletti, Natalie Barney, etc.

Weaving some fragments remaining from Sappho's writing, heralded as the first literary crusader of feminism and lesbianism, the book is a series of vignettes set in Greece, Italy, France and England as the lives of the different key players intertwine, either in real life or through their works.

I found the first third of this book absolutely fascinating, as I learnt about everything from the horrendous laws in Italy forcing a rape victim to marry their rapist to early attempts in the House of Lords to make lesbianism illegal. Whilst there is quite a lot known about British laws against homosexuality, I knew very little about how the hardships of lesbian women during this era, and it was fascinating to learn more about this from some incredibly interesting characters. I was slow at reading it, as I kept stopping on nearly every page to Google more about the characters I was being introduced to.

By the second third of the book, my interest waned a little. There were so many characters it became difficult to keep up with who was who, who knew who and how, and I felt the content, whilst fascinating to begin with, became a little repetitive. The final third piqued my interest again - I knew I was in the final stretches and so settled back into figuring out who each character was again.

4 stars - It's a book I was glad to finish, yet at the same time I'm glad I read it. It's well written, original and I learnt a lot from it. ( )

3.5 stars. Beautifully written but I was very aware I was reading the whole time. Also very white…but love the sapphics ( )

I might like this more with a reader’s guide or as the core of a course that reads the works referenced her. It definitely makes we want to revisit To the Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway. ( )