Les Belles Lettres was begun 100 years ago, during the First World War. Young Frenchmen had left their universities for the front lines by the millions; a few of them took with them the works of the great writers of antiquity. Writing to each other from the trenches, they laid out a plan for a new publishing house, one that would reach back into the classical world, “establish” the texts properly, and translate them for the modern world.

Sappho, the great ancient Greek Poetess, was considered equal to Homer. Living in the 7th BCE, her work was renowned and beloved... but over time her poetry has been lost. Today almost none of it has survived... that is, until a new discovery was found!

Learn the true story of Sappho's life, loss and the remarkable rediscovery of her poetry in Sappho: the Lost Poetess.

The truth of the matter is that we humans haven’t really changed that much. What Cicero has to say about grief is as relevant today as it was in the first century BC. The wise words of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius still ring true. History doesn’t repeat itself, as the old saying goes, but it does rhyme. 

Those who are clued into this know it’s very worthwhile learning from the past.