Flow down like silver : Hypatia of Alexandria : a novel

There's not much out there about Hypatia of Alexandria and what there is isn't world class.  Kind of understandable considering what's left of her work and her life.  But reading this "novel," got me as close to her as I ever expect to get.  This is a wonderful book and though it might differ from the scanty research done by dubious scholars, I get the feeling that the rational and emotional jumps made by Longfellow are more Hypatia than any dry biased account could ever be.  I'm also annoyed that anyone uses the Suda as a "source" for this extraordinary woman's life.  The Suda was written a long time after Hypatia was killed and in a time whose conventions were nothing like Hypatia's - yet these conventions are applied to her.  Celibacy for example.  Celibacy in the Western World was a convenience urged by the Catholic Church for its own purposes, none of them laudable.  Hypatia was no Christian and would never have been bound by the Christian dislike of the body and nature.  Flow Down Like Silver also delves into the alchemical which was surely part of Hypatia's world just as mathematics was.  Longfellow's clever assumptions based on common sense and a strong mystical understanding far surpasses the Suda.  And then there's her superb storytelling her delicious writing.  Why don't libraries have this book?

When the movie called AGORA is allowed to play in this county (think it has a release date of sometime in December 2009), the sales of this book should jump.  As Americans we haven't heard about Hypatia of Alexandria but when the movie opens that will change for a lot of people.  And then they'll find this gem waiting for them.  I've already read it and can only be pleased that soon others will experience its beauty and wisdom.  Longfellow wrote The Secret Magdalene as well.  I am now watching this writer as other people used to wait for a Harry Potter.

<a href="../wcpa/isbn/0975925598?loc="> </a>

I'm still sniffling. This is more than historical literature, this is Literature. The story of Hypatia is one I had never heard, never got mentioned in school, and yet here is one of the greatest women who ever lived! And so fortunate in her writer. Who knows if it is accurate? The author doesn't claim it is, too little to go by. But the Hypatia Longfellow has given us is a tremendous creation. So moving as we live her life with her, knowing all along her special world is doomed. Oh, back for more tissues.

After I read The Secret Magdalene by this author, I could not wait to read her next book, also a work with the search for eternal meaning at its core.  This one concerns Hypatia of Alexandria, one of the world's brilliant forgotten women.  Hypatia was a mathematician, a philosopher (the most famous and influential of her day), a cosmologist, alchemist, and the last of the great mystery Alexandrian teachers just as Christianity was sweeping through the Roman world forbidding all that Hypatia believed in, taught and did.  She was a woman of beauty and sensuality and courage.  She stood her ground when the "faithful" came calling for her in the guise of Cyril, the new Bishop of Alexandria.  This is a stunning story gorgeously written, just as The Secret Magdalene is and was.  It's an easier read, not that the first book was hard, not if you don't expect a beach book.  These are not beach books.  They're timeless literature.  Now I have to wait for the third in this trilogy.  Going to be hard.  Highly recommended to everyone who loves good books.