From: World Literature Today | Date: September 22, 1996| Author: Savvas, Minas | COPYRIGHT 1996 University of Oklahoma. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

In an entry in his notebook dated 13 December 1902, Cavafy wrote, "I do not know whether perversion gives strength, sometimes I think it does. But it is certain that it is a source of splendor." The fact that I (a student of Cavafy for thirty-some years) had never before seen this comment published anywhere else is a clue for me to the exceptional research inherent in John Anton's excellent study of the Alexandrian genius. The author announces in his introduction that "one of the mai...