The Appearance of "EpicurusInLove.com"

The following post appeared very recently on the Facebook Epicurean Philosophy Group:

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May I recommend my partner’s historical novel, ’Epicurus In Love’ (epicurusinlove.com) by Paul Donovan, published recently by The Euphorion Press, distribution by John Reed Books.

The book is a page-turner, yet well-researched, and written in accordance with the Rules, pushing no particular philosophy other than the Epicurean corpus as revealed in the master’s works — a model we use daily in living our own everyday lives.

As Paul says, ‘It is a labour of love, which surely lies at the heart of epicurean teaching’. The novel is his straightforward attempt to bring Epicurus to a wider, mainstream audience of readers, so that people are stimulated to seek him out, beyond the pages of a novel.

Epicurus of Samos remains a practical thinker, as revealed in his many aphorisms and other works, unlike the remote abstractions of Plato and Aristotle — which I suspect, stems from the fact he came from humble roots, yet well-educated by his school-teacher father.

Unlike many other philosophers of the Greek Golden Age, he is readily approachable and speaks in terms that we all understand, as applicable now in the 21st century as it was in Athens, Lampsacus, or Mytilene of the 4th century BCE.

Peace to all, Pam

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My post in response was:

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Thanks for posting Pamela. I haven't had a chance to check into this so I can't endorse or un-endorse, and historical fiction can be very tricky, but it certainly looks to be an interesting topic. If anyone here decides to check into it I hope you'll let us know what you think.

I was hoping to get some kind of preliminary feedback before posting this here, but I decided that was not likely to come quickly, and there's probably no harm in posting this. Some of the excerpts indicate to me an approach that might not be entirely positive from everyone's point of view, and several instances of historical fiction about Epicurus I have seen before cause me to think it's unlikely we're going to see anything like 'A Few Days In Athens' anytime soon. But I want to be positive and so will hope for the best.

There are free excerpts on the web page but it looks like the book itself is somewhat pricey, so I am not sure we will get much feedback very quickly. But if anyone reading this here on the forum decides to investigate, please be sure to let us know what you think.

It occurs to me that it might be useful to follow up on my comment that the body of historical fiction on Epicurus is "uneven" at best.

A Few Days In Athens comes to mind as the most successful.

But there are others, including "Epicurus My Master" by Max Radin. It's been quite a long time since I read that but I don't remember it positively.

I know there are others and I will see if I can add them to this thread, but the reason I forget them is that I don't remember coming away impressed. I think in general what I am remembering is that most efforts I have seen, instead of doing justice to the philosophy, seem in my view more to trivialize Epicurus (or the philosophy) rather than to be useful. That's where A Few Days In Athens is the exception.

But I would be happy to be wrong. If anyone has come across historical fiction on Epicurus or his philosophy that is praiseworthy, please add a link to this thread.