Varieties of Darkness

From Venice to Vietnam, from the Welsh coast to Cairo, Don Meredith has traveled in the wake of twentieth-century writers, using their novels and poems as guides, as another wayfarer might turn to Fodor's or the Guide Bleu. He has gone in search of the back streets, basilicas, cafes, piazzas, and countrysides that figured so powerfully in the works of authors who are especially attuned to a sense of place.

Part travelogue, part literary study, Varieties of Darkness is Meredith's account of his exploration of Michael Ondaatje's fascinating literary masterpiece The English Patient. Meredith mines the places, the real-life counterparts of the characters, and the curious creative mind of Ondaatje. Varieties of Darkness offers fresh insights into the novel and Ondaatje's prodigious use of scholarly detail.

Autorentext

By Don Meredith

Inhalt

List of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments

Pare I: The Last Medieval War

1. The Painter and the Thief
2. Michelangelo's Bridge
3. Via Vecchia Fiesolana
4. Horsemen in Bronze
5. White Lion
6. Fuorusciti
7. The Villa
8. Queen of Sheba
9. Trompe L'oeil

Part II: Sinners in a Holy City

10. Geography Manifest
11. Garden of Sensual Delights
12. Doppelgangers
13. Semiramis
14. Masr al-Qadima
15. What Country?

Part III: Looking for Zerzura

16. Vascular Sizood
17. The Angle of Repose
18. Oases
19. Major Hamid
20. 24th Parallel
21. Journey to Siwa
22. Lions and Hyenas
23. Tent With Calabash
24. Brandenburg Brigade
25. Drei Burgen
26. Wadi Sura
27. al-Aqaba
28. Looking for Zerzura
29. Abu Raml

Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index