Jusdanis, Gregory and Peter Jeffreys. Constantine Cavafy. A New Biography. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025. xxiv, 534 p.

ISBN 0374610428, 9780374610425 hbk

Contents:

Abbreviations (p. ix); Chronology of Events in C.P. Cavafy’s Life (pp. xi-xiv); Preface: Writing Constantine Cavafy (pp. xv-xxiv).

CONSTANTINE CAVAFY: Prologue (pp. 3-13).

Part I: ‘The Cavafy Family’ (pp. 15-107): 1. “The Family Council: Commerce, Culture, and Letters” (pp. 17-42); 2. “Trauma, Exile, and Loss: The Flight to the Ottoman Capital” (pp. 43-68); 3. “Family Affairs” (pp. 69-107);

Part II: ‘Alexandria: The Dreamscape’ (pp. 109-175): 4. “Constantine’s World” (pp. 111-142); 5. “A Tale of Two Cities” (pp. 143-175);

Part III: ‘Friends’ (pp. 177-248): 6. “Friendship and Intimacy: Cliques or Claques?” (pp. 179-206); 7. “Peri: Aesthete, Artist, and Confidant” (pp. 207-229); 8. “‘It Would Have Been You’: Timos Malanos and Alekos Sengopoulos” (pp. 230-248);

“Interlude: Constantine’s Reading” (pp. 249-278);

Part IV: ‘Living for Poetry’ (pp. 279-355): 9. “Art above Everything” (pp. 281-317); 10. “The Big Poetic Change” (pp. 318-355);

Part V: ‘Cultivating Fame’ (pp. 357-402): 11. “The Quest for Glory” (pp. 361-380); 12. “Constantine’s Literary Radius” (pp. 381-402).

“Epilogue” (pp. 403-418).

“Important People in C.P. Cavafy’s Life” (prepared in collaboration with Angeliki Mousiou) (pp. 419-427); Notes (pp. 429-486); Works Cited (pp. 487-500); Acknowledgements (pp. 501-504); Index (pp. 505-531).

Sixteen plates containing 31 photographs are inserted between pp. 326 and 327.

Illustration credits (pp. 533-534).