CONSTANTINE CAVAFY

A quirky, revelatory biography of the celebrated Greek poet.

The co-authors, who have written a number of books about Constantine Cavafy, organize their biography in five parts in order to focus on certain key topics in his life. They begin at the end, with his death from throat cancer in 1933, “then tell a circular narrative through various thematic sequences.” First up is the wealthy Cavafy family, which traveled often. Time spent in England “would shape [Constantine’s] social, cultural, and literary tastes.” Their move to Istanbul allowed him to widen his knowledge and interests, including his sexual orientation. Cosmopolitan Alexandria was for Constantine a “beloved” city of “infinite expansion” where he would work for 30 years as a petty civil clerk at the Department of Irrigation. The authors envision Cavafy in his book- and candle-laden apartment, walking around, visiting churches, museums, and bookstores, and traveling to the coast—places that provided inspiration for his poems. His friendships fell into three categories: pleasure, virtue, and advantage. The authors discuss his relationship with his friend E.M. Forster, who championed Cavafy’s poetry in England. In an “Interlude,” they explore Cavafy’s extensive reading. Many books dealt with history and the major Greek and French writers, while Shakespeare looms large alongside Keats, Homer, Dante, Poe, and Tennyson. But “poetry would become his life and he would live for poetry.” At first he dabbled in journalism, but poetry won out, publishing his first in 1886, “The Poet and the Muse.” He experimented with how to write about homoerotic sexuality and relished delving into rhyme, rhythm, meter, and punctuation. The authors conclude by discussing one of Cavafy’s most intriguing traits, his obsessive, self-confident need to be read and known (often giving away copies of his “terse, disciplined verse”), coupled with his “crippling self-doubt.”

A dive into reams of primary source materials reveals a “new” Cavafy.