A gripping and revealing new biography of one of the greatest of modern poets, the queer, Greek-Egyptian Constantine Cavafy, whose admirers have ranged from E.M. Forster, T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf to Jackie Onassis, Leonard Cohen and Stephen Fry.
Shortlisted for the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award
'A deeply researched and engaging biography… Jeffreys and Jusdanis brilliantly recreate Cavafy’s world’ - Guardian
‘A nuanced and original portrait’ - Literary Review
‘A richly detailed and clear-sighted account of Cavafy’s life and work’ - Spectator
'Melancholy and majesty. . . [an] extraordinary life story' - New Statesman
In this illuminating book, Peter Jeffreys and Gregory Jusdanis reveal Cavafy as a troubled, brilliant poet who sacrificed love for his art and changed the course of world poetry. Alexandrian Sphinx chronicles the extraordinary story of his family, the vicissitudes of their fortunes, and their eventual poverty when they left Egypt and moved to Liverpool, London and Istanbul. As the poet reached adulthood, his story centred on his beloved Alexandria, the city that nourished his imagination and became for him a metaphor of both his poetry and modern life. Deep archival research uncovers the poet’s relationships with his teenage companions, his friends of middle age, and the individuals whom in later life he enlisted in his steadfast pursuit of fame.
Alexandrian Sphinx tells not only of Cavafy’s life but of his work and his artistic journey, from his early poetic experiments to his startling reinvention in middle age, when he renounced much of what he had written and developed a radical new poetics. Erotic, philosophical, and linguistically suggestive, this widely imitated yet singular style is now recognized and revered as Cavafian.
- 534 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
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Information
Subtopic
Literary BiographiesIndex
HistoryTable of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Abbreviations
- Chronology of Events in C. P. Cavafy’s Life
- Preface: Writing ‘Alexandrian Sphinx’
- Prologue
- Part I: The Cavafy Family
- Part II: Alexandria: The Dreamscape
- Part III: Friends
- Part IV: Living for Poetry
- Part V: Cultivating Fame
- Epilogue
- Photographs
- Important People in C. P. Cavafy’s Life
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
- Illustration Credits
- Copyright
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Yes, you can access Alexandrian Sphinx by Peter Jeffreys,Gregory Jusdanis in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Literary Biographies. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.