Pygmalion Revisited

Stories based on the myth of “Pygmalion and the Statue”

• ISBI 978-1-939275-59-2
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The myth of Pygmalion, the artist who fell in love with a statue he carved, has been a theme for countless authors, singers, and artists over the years. In this volume, author Devon Layne compiles six stories, each with a different take on the ancient myth.

The first is a simple retelling of the myth with “a little meat on its bones” and told in contemporary language. The second, “Lost Wax”, tells the story of a sculptor working with bronze castings whose clay molds begin to shape the model he is working with. “Whittled Away” is the story of an old man who converses with his long-dead wife as he whittles at a block of wood in his cabin awaiting his time to join her. When two artists meet at a Renaissance Fair but have different media for their art, we are left to ask what durable art is and whether clay and iron can mix in “Iron Alchemy”. What if it were the other way around and the art fell in love with the artist? This is the question asked in “Mixed Media”. And finally, an advertising copywriter describes his ideal mate in “A Thousand Words”.

Each story presents a different aspect, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and always with a touch of romance and erotica.

“I really have a preference for longer stories. That said, these are wonderful and thematically consistent tales. His preface to the stories, in which he retells Ovid's Pygmalion from the much longer Metamorphoses is also compelling.”