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Loading... The Quest for Corvo : An Experiment in Biography (1934)by A. J. A. Symons
None. I have to start by saying this is a fascinating and entertaining book. I couldn't recommend it more highly; it is the kind of gem that makes a random walk through this collection of old books seem like an adventure. I know that if my book buying was more title- or author- focused, I would never have discovered it: I had never heard of Baron Corvo, or of Symons, who died young without producing any other major work. It is only the undiscriminating purchase of every old Penguin I come across that delivered it into my hands. Continued (  ) apenguinaweek | Mar 11, 2011 |  This book is subtitled "An Experiment in Biography" and it is, truly, an unusual work. Which is all for the best, considering its subject: Frederick William Rolfe, aka Baron Corvo, an obscure English writer from the turn of the 20th century. Rolfe was…well, "eccentric" doesn't quite cover it. "Repugnant" comes to mind, as does "beastly"…also, however, "charming" and "intelligent" and even, yes, "genius". A normal biography couldn't possibly give the reader the complete sense of knowing the man, let alone build a sympathy for someone who, in his own words, "…cultivate(d) the art of making enemies". The Quest for Corvo is fascinating reading, regardless of one's interest in the subject. ( )1  chilirlw | May 14, 2009 | no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0940322617, Paperback)One day in 1925 a friend asked A. J. A. Symons if he had read Fr. Rolfe's Hadrian the Seventh. He hadn't, but soon did, and found himself entranced by the novel -- "a masterpiece"-- and no less fascinated by the mysterious person of its all-but-forgotten creator. The Quest for Corvo is a hilarious and heartbreaking portrait of the strange Frederick Rolfe, self-appointed Baron Corvo, an artist, writer, and frustrated aspirant to the priesthood with a bottomless talent for self-destruction. But this singular work, subtitled "an experiment in biography," is also a remarkable self-portrait, a study of the obsession and sympathy that inspires the biographer's art.(retrieved from Amazon Sat, 26 Mar 2011 23:25:27 -0400) "One day in 1925 a friend asked A. J. A. Symons if he had read Fr. Rolfe's Hadrian the Seventh. He hadn't, but soon did, and found himself entranced by the novel - "a masterpiece" - and no less fascinated by the mysterious person of its all-but-forgotten creator. The Quest for Corvo is a portrait of the strange Frederick Rolfe, self-appointed Baron Corvo, an artist, writer, and frustrated aspirant to the priesthood with a bottomless talent for self-destruction. But this singular work, subtitled "an experiment in biography," is also a remarkable self-portrait, a study of the obsession and sympathy that inspire the biographer's art."--BOOK JACKET.… (more) |
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