How long does it take to read If Not, Winter?
Fragments of Sappho
If Not, Winter by Sappho, Anne Carson takes about 7 hours 30 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 7 hours 30 minutes
A weekend read
First published 2002. 409 pages, about 112,475 words.
15 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 12 hours 30 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 7 hours 30 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 4 hours 41 minutes |
The page count is the median across 5 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
A bilingual edition of the work of the Greek poet Sappho, in a new translation by Anne Carson.Sappho lived on the island of Lesbos from about 630 b.c. She was a musical genius who devoted her life to composing and performing songs. Of the nine books of lyrics Sappho is said to have composed, none of the music is extant and only one poem has survived complete. All the rest are fragments. In If Not, Winter Carson presents all of Sappho's fragments in Greek and in English. Brackets and space give the reader a sense of what is absent as well as what is present on the papyrus. Carson's translation illuminates Sappho's reflections on love, desire, marriage, exile, cushions, bees, old age, shame, time, chickpeas and many other aspects of the human situation.From the Hardcover edition.
Subjects: Fiction, Poetry, Women, LGBTQ poetry
