The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography
by A.J.A. Symons
- New
- Paperback
- Condition
- New
- ISBN 10
- 0940322617
- ISBN 13
- 9780940322615
- Seller
-
Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
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.
Reviews
On Oct 6 2010, EarlEDoors said:
I first came across the name of Aleister Crowley when I acquired a copy of Maugham’s 1907 novel ‘The Magician’. The character Oliver Haddo is said to be based on Crowley. It made me want to read more.Symons’ book is a scholarly work if it is sometimes written in the style of a boys own adventure story. It traces, quoting its sources, a life which began in London in 1860 and ended in Venice in 1913.In between these dates the subject lived the live of a chancer;of a ‘ducker-and-diver’ and died in poverty. There is very little mention of his writings other than his novel Hadrian 1V,although he wrote copiously on the black arts (The Goetia,The Book of the Law etc) and no mention of his infamous stay in Sicily mentioned by Cammell (Aleister Crowley the Black Magician 1969).However, reading ‘The Search for Corvo’ with no other knowledge about Crowley you feel that you have read a well-written thoroughly researched study of a very unusual man.(To confuse the picture further see also ‘The Magical Dilemma of Victor Neuberg’ Fuller 1990)
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Details
- Bookseller
- Janson Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 316162769
- Title
- The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography
- Author
- A.J.A. Symons
- Format/Binding
- New
- Book Condition
- New New
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 0940322617
- ISBN 13
- 9780940322615
- Publisher
- New York Review Books
- Place of Publication
- New York, New York, U.s.a.
- Date Published
- 2001-03-31
Terms of Sale
Janson Books
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About the Seller
Janson Books
Biblio member since 2015
Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania
About Janson Books
Covers a broad range of fiction, biographies, general sciences with some concentration in a variety of biomedical and chemical science titles which reflect the owner's lifetime interests.