Pagan Light
Dreams of Freedom and Beauty in Capri
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- 47,99 zł
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- 47,99 zł
Publisher Description
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
"Pagan Light is mesmerizing. Every detail is compelling. I felt I was reading a family history of a family far more interesting than mine." --Edmund White, author of Our Young Man
A rich, intimate embrace of Capri, which was a magnet for artistic renegades and a place of erotic refuge
Isolated and arrestingly beautiful, the island of Capri has been a refuge for renegade artists and writers fleeing the strictures of conventional society from the time of Augustus, who bought the island in 29 BC after defeating Antony and Cleopatra, to the early twentieth century, when the poet and novelist Jacques d’Adelswärd-Fersen was in exile there after being charged with corrupting minors, to the 1960s, when Truman Capote spent time on the island. We also meet the Marquis de Sade, Goethe, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Compton Mackenzie, Rilke, Lenin, and Gorky, among other astonishingly vivid characters.
Grounded in a deep intimacy with Capri and full of captivating anecdotes, Jamie James’s Pagan Light tells how a tiny island served as a wildly permissive haven for people—queer, criminal, sick, marginalized, and simply crazy—who had nowhere else to go.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This beguiling study of bohemian subcultures celebrates the louche gay expat scene on the sun-drenched Italian island of Capri through the mid 20th century. Journalist James (The Glamour of Strangeness) traces Capri's dissolute reputation to the Roman emperor Tiberius, who was said to hold obscene orgies with children on the island. He then leaps to the Edwardian era when Capri became a haven for writers, artists, and gay aesthetes drawn by its isolation, spectacular views, relaxed attitude toward homosexuality, and hedonistic vibe. James centers his profile of the community on the French aristocrat and writer Jacques d'Adelsw rd Fersen, who was convicted of corrupting minors in 1903 and fled to Capri where he resumed corrupting minors in private and at mystical ceremonies. There was also a thriving lesbian contingent, led by the painter Romaine Brooks, who entangled herself in many a dramatic love triangle with women and men. James's narrative spotlights famous Capri sojourners including Oscar Wilde, D.H. Lawrence, and Vladimir Lenin and their art and writings; along the way he offers colorful historical anecdotes that feature wild parties, ritual nudity, and occasional gunplay, as well as a travelogue of the modern-day island. The result is a sensitive, wryly comic, engrossing history about creative eccentrics and erotic outlaws seeking a physical and spiritual home. Photos.
