The Quest for Corvo

A.J.A. Symons (1900-1941) pursued a wide variety of projects in his short life, writing and editing works on the verse of the 1890s, the history of the Nonesuch Press, and critical studies of various figures of note. He is remembered for his groundbreaking biography of the bizarre genius Baron Corvo and for his own eccentric hobbies, as chronicled in a biography written by his brother, the mystery novelist Julian Symons. »

A. S. Byatt's book of essays On Histories and Stories will be published in the US next year. Her new novel, The Biographer's Tale, will be published here in January. (November 2000) »

By A.J.A. Symons
Introduction by A.S. Byatt

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

Once caught up in 'the quest,' the reader wonders how he can have lived so long without meeting this elusive, mysterious man and his work.
— The New York Times

Also see:

Fr. Rolfe Set

Format: Paperback
Retail Price: $12.95
Price: $9.71 (25% off)

Mar 31, 2001
312 pages
ISBN: 0940322617
9780940322615
Biography & Memoir
NYRB Classics

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