The Sweet Girl
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- 4,99 €
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- 4,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
A bold and captivating new novel of what it means to be a woman in ancient Greece, from the celebrated, award-winning author of The Golden Mean.
Aristotle has never been able to resist a keen mind in another, even in his own daughter, Pythias - a young girl who should be content with the kitchen, the loom and a future of childbearing. But she is really smart, able to best his own students in debate; is she a freak or a harbinger of what women can really achieve? Whichever is the case, hers is a privileged position, a woman who moves in a man's world, protected by the reputation of her philosopher father. Yet her entire life is set to change when Aristotle falls from grace...
Driven from Athens, the old philosopher soon dies. Without the loving guidance of her father, the orphaned sixteen-year-old Pythias quickly discovers that the world is a place not of logic after all, but one of superstition, and that a girl can be preyed upon by gods and goddesses as much as by grown men and women. To safely journey to a place in which she can reach her true potential, Aristotle's daughter will need every ounce of wit she possesses; and she must also learn, quickly, to nurture her capacity to love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lyon returns to ancient Greece for her second novel, this time focusing on Aristotle's daughter, Pythias. At the outset, she is seven years old and devoted to her famous father, curious about the world around her and displaying her father's powers of debate and observation. She chafes at woman's work and the limitations of her gender, a problem that only grows as she matures and finds herself caught between Aristotle's world of inquiry and the woman's world where she is expected to dwell. When Alexander the Great dies, Aristotle a fellow Macedonian and Alexander's teacher must flee to the countryside, where he dies. Aristotle's will dictates a course for the rest of his daughter's life including marriage to Nicanor, a distant cousin, which would entail surrendering to a domesticity for which Pythias, now a teenager, is too clever by half. Lyons writes the tale of Pythias's efforts to escape, and the price she must pay to claim the life she desires. Writing in the present tense, Lyon does a remarkable job of making Pythias, her ancient world, and her eternal problems raw and compelling. While this book necessarily lacks the surprising freshness of The Golden Mean, Lyons nonetheless lives up to her promise, delivering to readers a modern twist on the ancient world.