Constantine Cavafy: A New Biography

The early 20th-century Greek Egyptian poet behind “Waiting for the Barbarians” and “Ithaca” surmounted star-crossed circumstances with his profound verse and feverish self-promotion, according to this labyrinthine biography. Ohio State classics professor Jusdanis (The Poetics of Cavafy) and Suffolk University English professor Jeffreys (Reframing Decadence) recap Cavafy’s early misfortunes, including his father’s death when Cavafy was seven and the folding of the family business soon after. Then, in 1882, the British bombardment of Alexandria forced his family to flee their home. Cavafy responded to this tumult by writing poetry, which proved pathbreaking, with its symbolic reflection on ancient Greco-Roman and Byzantine history, modern formalism, and homoerotic imagery. Much of the book is an esoteric analysis of Cavafy’s literary efforts, tying his poetry back to his relationships, art, and his studies of history and other poets. The authors’ academic prose and dry critical appreciations of Cavafy’s verse are less than riveting, but the book comes alive when it turns to Cavafy’s efforts to win fame. In these colorful sections, the mature Cavafy emerges as a narcissist convinced of his own genius who would invite young men to his apartment, flatter them, and send them home with stern admonitions to talk up his poems. The result is an intermittently captivating portrait of an artist perennially on the make. (Aug.)