Sappho's Journal

"Sappho's Journal" by Paul Alexander Bartlett is a historical fiction telling Sappho's compelling life story, focusing on her emotions and experiences in 642 B.C. The story reveals Sappho's deepest thoughts on love, beauty, and being alone, but also shows the challenges she faced as a female artist at the time, when men controlled society. The story starts with Sappho dealing with difficult parts of her life, full of deep desires, love, and sadness. As a storm rages, she thinks carefully about the friends, lovers, and her feelings about the looming war threatening her island home of Mytilene. She reflects on her relationships with people close to her, like Alcaeus, her brother Charaxos, and the young women around her, showing her emotional range and hinting at the personal and social conflicts that will change her life. The text uses descriptive language to highlight the moods, allowing readers to deeply connect with Sappho's life as a poet who experiences hardship.