Most people know something of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice: When Eurydice died from a venomous snake bite shortly after their wedding, Orpheus was distraught.
He journeyed to the underworld and begged Hades to return Eurydice to life.
When Orpheus played his lyre, the music was so sweet that for the brief duration of the song the sufferings of all in the underworld were eased. As reward, Hades granted Orpheus’s request.
With one catch (there’s always a catch). Orpheus was forbidden to look at Eurydice until they were both back on the earth’s surface. You can probably guess from the picture what happened.
In The Loves of Leopold Singer, Leopold Singer (singer – get it? get it?) is an Orpheus figure. When Leopold’s wife is traumatized shortly after their marriage, she sinks into a kind of depression. He’d love nothing better than to save her from her pain, but in a twist on the myth, she has to find her own way through the passage of Taenarus to the bright, sunshiny day.
I’ve strewn references to the mythology of Orpheus throughout LOLS. It isn’t at all necessary to know Greek mythology to enjoy the story, but I hope people who do like it will enjoy that aspect of the novel.
Some other tidbits:
The Lost Bee is the name of a London coffee house in LOLS. According to Greek mythology, Aristaeus was the first to domesticate bees. He’s also the villain who chased after Eurydice, driving her into the path of the deadly snake who killed her. Later, when Orpheus was inconsolable having twice lost his love, the nymphs responded to Orpheus’s grief by destroying Aristaeus’s bees.
Orpheus’s power is centered in his music – his voice and his harp. When the Maenads tried to kill him (because he refused to make love with women, among other things), the sticks and stones they threw were enthralled by his music and failed to hit him. This drove the Maenads into a rage. When their loud frenzy drowned out Orpheus’s song, the projectiles hit their mark with deadly force, and the Maenads ripped Orpheus to pieces. In LOLS, after Leopold refuses the advances of a woman not his wife, a storm drowns out his voice to dire effect.
I’m a little over half-way done, and liking it. There’s a LOT going on, though.
Yeah – this is a big one. Sometimes I wonder if I should have broken the whole thing up and made a series … but I PROMISE it all comes together in the end! It was like weaving a long braid.
I just finished reading it yesterday, and I must say it was epic. I loved it! I got so involved with these people and their lives. I felt all these different emotions while I was reading it. At times I was happy or sad, and sometimes I would get so angry with the characters I would have to put the book down and walk away for a little while. If they were real people I would have liked to have shook them and asked “What’s wrong with you? Have you learned nothing?” Other parts just shocked me, and I felt a pain in my heart for them. I love when a book is that deep, and you can get immersed in it. Well done!
Hurray! Thank you SO much for letting me know, Amy. I’m so pleased you enjoyed it.
I’m having the same reactions, Amy. Some I love to hate, others I just love, I cry and get upset with some. It runs the whole range of emotions.
Linda – that’s fantastic! I love it when readers have such emotional responses and get that involved in the stories. You and Amy have made me very happy!
Someone once said that the mark of a good book, or a good movie, is that you become part of it…involved. This is one of those. You’ve done good, Girl.