THE QUEST FOR CORVO An Experiment in Biography

Narrator Rupert Degas tackles this offbeat "experiment in biography" with conspicuous gusto and the enthusiasm of a man given an assignment he feels born to perform. In 1925, British author Symons was introduced to a previously unknown novel, Frederick Rolfe's HADRIAN THE SEVENTH. This eccentric work led Symons to pursue its even more eccentric author, who styled himself as "Baron Corvo" and remains justifiably unread. Degas performs this landmark genre buster in an expressive and robust British bark that highlights Symons's meticulous research and fertile prose. Symons sees Rolfe as "a defeated man of genius," and although interesting, the baron is everything a failed writer--and one persistently in debt--can be. That subject is somewhat dreary, but narrative and narrator are highly colorful and memorably portrayed. D.A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2024]