The Quest for Corvo
An Experiment in Biography
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The Quest for Corvo
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Narrated by:
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Rupert Degas
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By:
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A.J.A. Symons
About this listen
A.J.A. Symons discovered Frederick Rolfe’s Hadrian the Seventh in 1925 and became consumed with fascination for its eccentric author, aka ‘Baron Corvo’. His ‘quest’ takes the form of an irresistible detective story, the twists and turns of his investigation into Rolfe’s unfortunate life resulting in a groundbreaking form of biography that reveals much about both men. It paints a tragi-comic portrait of a prickly, paranoid, talented Englishman who failed at becoming a Catholic priest and led a profligate lifestyle in Venice; a charmer with a sharp wit, a vituperative tongue and a talent for self-destruction. The process and the subject are as fascinating as each other, and this ‘experiment’ continues to stand out nearly a century after it was published.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©1934 A.J.A. Symons (P)2023 Naxos AudioBooks UK Ltd.Listeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about The Quest for Corvo
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rachel
- 27-11-23
Biography as detective story
I really enjoyed this book! Much funnier than expected though Corvo is a tragic figure. It’s very meta for a book written in 1934 and I found myself as interested in the author as I was in Corvo. More perhaps. It reminded me of Possession by AS Byatt and must track down her intro to the recent re-issue of the book. I have zero interest in reading anything by Corvo but as an account of writing a biography it’s just brilliant. Must also say that the narrator could not be better. He brings out the dry humour perfectly!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sydney
- 20-07-24
The first and best meta-biography
The first time I read Quest for Corvo I was a good way in until I realised it wasn’t fiction. How could all these extraordinary characters helpfully write such fascinating, funny, poignant, and lengthy letters! And yet when you look anyone up, they did in fact exist, at least they have Wikipedia pages and photographs. Biographies following the author's journey through the research alongside the picture they are creating of the subject are one of my favourite sub-genres and this one is the first and still one of the very best examples. NB when Corvo is mentioned in a set that included Henry James, Oscar Wilde, and Aubrey Beardsley a lot of the subtext does become more clear.
The reading by Rupert Degas is absolutely magnificent, does full justice to differentiating all these very literate and very strange people.
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