Posted by Seema
on 7/5/2012, 19:29:11, in reply to "Re: The Alexandria Quartet"
168.122.66.2
--Previous Message--
: Thanks for the link, I'll check it. I have an edition
: (supposedly masterful) of Cavafy's poems translated
: into Spanish, but I hadn't gone through it until now.
: The moment Durrell mentioned the poet, I took it out
: of the shelf and started reading. It absolutely
: conquered me. Cavafy's a wonderful poet, and the
: combination between him and Durrell really makes you
: go back in time and visit old Alexandria.
:
: --Previous Message--
: I also read "The Alexandria Quartet" years
: ago
: and liked it. I then followed it up with another
: novel about Alexandria--Naguib Mahfouz's
: "Miramar." I'm not sure which influenced
: which, but both the "Quartet" and
: "Miramar" employ the Rashomon-like device of
: telling the same story from different points of view,
: suggesting that perhaps it's somewhere in the middle
: that the real truth of what occurred lies.
:
: The best thing to come out of my reading the
: "Quartet," though, was my discovery of the
: poet who inspired it: Constantine Cavafy. I had never
: heard of him before, but now he is one of my very
: favorite writers. Highly recommended if you get a
: chance. Though the poems are approaching 100 years old
: now, they read as if they were written just last night
: by that solitary individual lingering over a cup of
: coffee in the back corner of the cafe you visited.
:
: In case you're interested, here is an interesting
: essay on Cavafy and his kindred spirit, the Portuguese
: writer Fernando Pessoa:
: www.threepennyreview.com/samples/cohen_w02.html
:
: The author of the piece compares the two poets (both
: worked mundane office jobs while producing in near
: anonymity great literature in their free time) and
: discusses the importance of the cities they lived in
: (Alexandria for Cavafy, Lisbon for Pessoa) to their
: work.
:
: Finally, one more thing on Alexandria. I read
: somewhere that E.M. Forster (a friend of Cavafy's)
: wrote two definitive guidebooks to old Alexandria, but
: I've only been able to find one of them ("Pharos
: and Pharillon"). The other ("Alexandria: A
: History & a Guide") remains out there
: somewhere, yet to be tracked down by me. I'd love to
: find a copy because: 1. since my discovery of Cavafy,
: I have a fascination with old Alexandria; and 2.
: several writers have called Forster's guide one of the
: great travel books ever written.
:
It's been over a decade since I read the Quartet but it made a pretty big impression on me at the time. Cavafy was certainly my biggest takeaway from the books but it was also possibly one of my first explorations into a work where the narrator(s) were essentially unreliable. I'd love to revisit these now.
Also, I posted here briefly about 4 years ago and doubt any of you remember but am still reading (your posts as well as books in general) and am always delighted to see this forum still active.
Message Thread
« Back to index