Cavafy: Poems
Edited and Translated With Notes by Daniel Mendelsohn
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group · Print & ebook · March 11, 2014
The Alexandrian Greek poet Constantine Cavafy (1863–1933) is a towering figure of twentieth-century literature.
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- Who it’s for
- Cavafy’s taut poems bring Mediterranean antiquity close, where history meets desire and private feeling.
- Themes
- Mediterranean antiquity, Homoerotic desire, History made personal
- Genres
- European Poetry, Ancient & Classical Poetry, Ancient Greece
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The Alexandrian Greek poet Constantine Cavafy (1863–1933) is a towering figure of twentieth-century literature. No modern poet brought so vividly to life the history and culture of Mediterranean antiquity; no writer dared break, with such taut energy, the taboos of his time surrounding homoerotic desire.
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In this edition, award-winning translator and editor Daniel Mendelsohn has made a selection of the poet’s best-loved works, including such favorites as “Waiting for the Barbarians,” “Ithaca,” and “The God Abandons Antony.” Accompanied by Mendelsohn’s explanatory notes, the poems collected here cover the vast sweep of Hellenic civilization, from the Trojan War through Cavafy’s own lifetime. Whether advising Odysseus as he returns home to Ithaca or portraying a doomed Marc Antony on the eve of his death, Cavafy’s poems make the historic profoundly and movingly personal.
History, Made Intimate
Cavafy’s taut poems bring Mediterranean antiquity close, where history meets desire and private feeling.
Come here for
- Mediterranean history rendered with unusual intimacy
- Classical legend and homoerotic desire, met without evasion
Expect
- A selection spanning Hellenic civilization to Cavafy’s lifetime
- Daniel Mendelsohn’s explanatory notes alongside the poems
Where it sits
| Ancient Greece | 55% |
|---|---|
| European Poetry | 54% |
| Ancient & Classical Poetry | 46% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- European Poetry
- Middle Eastern Poetry
- Authors
- C.P. Cavafy, Daniel Mendelsohn
- Publisher
- Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
- Published
- March 11, 2014
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Mediterranean antiquity · Homoerotic desire · History made personal
- Reading lane
- European Poetry