Pharos And Pharillon
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Yellowed
Markings: Previous owner
Alexandria, that most mythologized of Mediterranean cities — a place where antiquity and modernity collide in perpetual, restless conversation — is the beating heart of E. M. Forster's Pharos and Pharillon, a luminous collection of essays that presents the city's layered history with wit, erudition, and tender affection. Named for the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and the lesser-known headland of Pharillon, the work chronicles the city's remarkable past, moving from the age of the Ptolemies and the poet Cavafy through to the dusty, commercially-driven Alexandria of the early twentieth century. Forster weaves together historical vignettes, biographical sketches, and personal observation, illuminating figures as disparate as Plotinus and a modern cotton merchant with equal and disarming charm. Written in the aftermath of Forster's own wartime residence in Alexandria, the collection argues quietly but powerfully that the soul of a great city cannot be extinguished — only temporarily obscured. His prose is precise, elegant, and shot through with a gentle irony that rewards the careful reader, while his deep admiration for the Greek poet C. P. Cavafy, whom he memorably introduced to the English-speaking world, gives the collection an unexpected emotional gravity. For anyone captivated by the intersection of place, memory, and civilisation, Pharos and Pharillon remains an indispensable, quietly revelatory work.
Author: E. M. Forster
Format: Hardback
Genre: Essays
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Yellowed
Markings: Previous owner
Alexandria, that most mythologized of Mediterranean cities — a place where antiquity and modernity collide in perpetual, restless conversation — is the beating heart of E. M. Forster's Pharos and Pharillon, a luminous collection of essays that presents the city's layered history with wit, erudition, and tender affection. Named for the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and the lesser-known headland of Pharillon, the work chronicles the city's remarkable past, moving from the age of the Ptolemies and the poet Cavafy through to the dusty, commercially-driven Alexandria of the early twentieth century. Forster weaves together historical vignettes, biographical sketches, and personal observation, illuminating figures as disparate as Plotinus and a modern cotton merchant with equal and disarming charm. Written in the aftermath of Forster's own wartime residence in Alexandria, the collection argues quietly but powerfully that the soul of a great city cannot be extinguished — only temporarily obscured. His prose is precise, elegant, and shot through with a gentle irony that rewards the careful reader, while his deep admiration for the Greek poet C. P. Cavafy, whom he memorably introduced to the English-speaking world, gives the collection an unexpected emotional gravity. For anyone captivated by the intersection of place, memory, and civilisation, Pharos and Pharillon remains an indispensable, quietly revelatory work.