Alexandrian Sphinx : The Hidden Life of Constantine Cavafy - Peter Jeffreys
Peter Jeffreys
£14.99
- Pages · 560 pages
- Publication Date · 13/08/2026
- Genre · Of specific Gay & Lesbian interest
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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. Winner of the International Hellenic PrizeShortlisted 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 StatesmanIn 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.
'Melancholy and majesty. . . [an] extraordinary life story' -�New StatesmanIn 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.
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