Peter Levi (1931–2000)
Auteur van Penguin Modern European Poets : Yevtushenko : selected poems
Over de Auteur
Fotografie: half shot of Peter Levi By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58188229
Reeksen
Werken van Peter Levi
Penguin Modern European Poets : Yevtushenko : selected poems (1962) — Translator, Introduction — 374 exemplaren
THE PSALMS 4 exemplaren
In memory of George Seferis 2 exemplaren
The Holy Gospel of John 1 exemplaar
The Holy Gospel of John : a new translation 1 exemplaar
The Life and Times of William Shakespeare 1 exemplaar
Obituary: Constantine Trypanis 1 exemplaar
Among the ruins 1 exemplaar
A private commission : new verses by Shakespeare 1 exemplaar
Gerelateerde werken
The Oxford History of Greece & the Hellenistic World (1986) — Medewerker, sommige edities — 666 exemplaren
Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Officiële naam
- Levi, Peter Chad Tigar
- Geboortedatum
- 1931-05-16
- Overlijdensdatum
- 2000-02
- Geslacht
- male
- Nationaliteit
- England
UK - Geboorteplaats
- Ruislip, Middlesex, England, UK
- Plaats van overlijden
- Frampton-on-Severn, Gloucestershire, England, UK
- Woonplaatsen
- Ruislip, Middlesex, England, UK
Frampton-on-Severn, Gloucestershire, England, UK - Opleiding
- Beaumont College
Heythrop College, London
Oxford University (Campion Hall) - Beroepen
- classical scholar
archaeologist
poet
Professor of Poetry
Jesuit priest - Organisaties
- University of Oxford
Society of Jesus - Korte biografie
- Levi was brought up in the Catholic faith of his Spanish mother (to which his father, a Jew from Istanbul, had converted), and was a member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) until resigning the Catholic priesthood in 1977 in favour of marriage. He spent a brief period as archaeology correspondent of "The Times", and was elected to a five-year term as Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford in 1984. He studied classics (Greek and Latin), and as well as poetry wrote on ancient Greek mythology and literature, travel, and other literary biography.
Leden
Besprekingen
A delightful and charming biography of one of the greatest British poets. The author's background in poetry shines through in his appreciation for the life and work of Milton.
Peter Levy's book takes us on a quiet walk through monastery land, telling us how monasteries first arose, and pointing at its various features. It has about 40 brief piercing, desultory essays written in a poet's prose, and packed with inconsequential information. It is beautiful.
I just don't know how I feel about Levi's tome, a vastly under-reviewed but clearly vital piece of Shakespearean scholarship.
In painstaking detail, Levi sorts through countless aspects of Shakespeare's life, sources, lifestyle, theatrical notions, as well as the legends and rumours surrounding the Bard. Moreso than some of the great Shakespearean biographers of our day - such as James Shapiro - Levi is sometimes tempted more by hearsay and tradition. On the other hand, he believes very much that a lot of the story of Shakespeare can be told or inferred from what was happening in the era. On this ground, he is brilliant. Sorting through so much information, Levi pulls together convincing discussions of everything from Shakespeare's family background to his final years, drawing a lot of inferences, but also connecting all of the extant elements of the Bard's life into one cohesive whole. This is clearly a labour of love, and it shows.
There are some flaws, however. Number one being that the book was clearly either self-published or by a smaller company, as it hasn't been proofread all that well. Levi was a poetry professor, and one gets the verbal style of an orator who needs an editor. Combine this with his off-handed references to political or religious history which are oblique enough that they could only be fully grasped by people of his age, class, and religious background, and there's a feeling that Levi's intended audience is a small one. (This is most notable in the early chapters on English history, where he will sometimes draw comparisons to points of the aristocracy or religion that have no baseline reference for a 25-year-old Australian like myself!) Beyond this, the sheer ambition of Levi's scope is sometimes overwhelming. This is part-biography, part-hypothesis, part-history, part-literary analysis, and (as many commentators have pointed out) part-epic poem. Sometimes, the book fills full-to-bursting with dense information. It doesn't help that - as I mentioned - sometimes I felt like an outsider, even though I consider myself a bit of an armchair Shakespeare scholar.
In short, this book is not for beginners. Unlike some of the better 'popular non-fiction' titles on the Bard, Levi's work is for people who consider themselves reasonably adept in Shakespeare's accepted history, in a solid number of his works, and preferably in a bit of English history of the time. Once you have brushed up on that, the complexities of Levi are worth a visit.
As for the religious element, well it's there. Levi talks in the introduction about his own religious affiliations, and they add to the occasional confusing moments of commentary - confusing, that is, to someone not of his time and place. Still, when he begins disclosing his fascinating amount of knowledge about Shakespeare's era, his experience shines through. And Levi himself clearly has the mentality of a poet, as his literary analyses are - even if you don't always agree - truly absorbing.
I firmly believe that failing ambitiously is better than succeeding with mediocrity. In Levi's case, he hasn't failed - he's just over-egged the pudding somewhat. This is a multi-faceted book: slow reading but worthy, poetic, sometimes fantastical but sometimes deeply pragmatic. One of the great trends of modern Shakespearean scholarship is to accept that there is much we will never know about William Shakespeare (as there is much we can never know of any genius, let alone one who lived in an era where few personal records remain), but we can make some reasonable assumptions. There were parts of Shakespeare's mind that would have been inaccessible even to those closest to him. There were parts of his life which are lost due to carelessness, a lack of foresight, and simply the verisimilitudes of the era. But beyond that, Shakespeare was a man, a jobbing writer, and a product of his time. In that regard, we can look to the world around him, to the idiosyncrasies of the specific theatre companies he wrote for, and the monarchs, commoners, and systems he was part of. We may not find all the answers there but, if we can believe Levi and his cohort, we can at least hazard a guess.… (meer)
In painstaking detail, Levi sorts through countless aspects of Shakespeare's life, sources, lifestyle, theatrical notions, as well as the legends and rumours surrounding the Bard. Moreso than some of the great Shakespearean biographers of our day - such as James Shapiro - Levi is sometimes tempted more by hearsay and tradition. On the other hand, he believes very much that a lot of the story of Shakespeare can be told or inferred from what was happening in the era. On this ground, he is brilliant. Sorting through so much information, Levi pulls together convincing discussions of everything from Shakespeare's family background to his final years, drawing a lot of inferences, but also connecting all of the extant elements of the Bard's life into one cohesive whole. This is clearly a labour of love, and it shows.
There are some flaws, however. Number one being that the book was clearly either self-published or by a smaller company, as it hasn't been proofread all that well. Levi was a poetry professor, and one gets the verbal style of an orator who needs an editor. Combine this with his off-handed references to political or religious history which are oblique enough that they could only be fully grasped by people of his age, class, and religious background, and there's a feeling that Levi's intended audience is a small one. (This is most notable in the early chapters on English history, where he will sometimes draw comparisons to points of the aristocracy or religion that have no baseline reference for a 25-year-old Australian like myself!) Beyond this, the sheer ambition of Levi's scope is sometimes overwhelming. This is part-biography, part-hypothesis, part-history, part-literary analysis, and (as many commentators have pointed out) part-epic poem. Sometimes, the book fills full-to-bursting with dense information. It doesn't help that - as I mentioned - sometimes I felt like an outsider, even though I consider myself a bit of an armchair Shakespeare scholar.
In short, this book is not for beginners. Unlike some of the better 'popular non-fiction' titles on the Bard, Levi's work is for people who consider themselves reasonably adept in Shakespeare's accepted history, in a solid number of his works, and preferably in a bit of English history of the time. Once you have brushed up on that, the complexities of Levi are worth a visit.
As for the religious element, well it's there. Levi talks in the introduction about his own religious affiliations, and they add to the occasional confusing moments of commentary - confusing, that is, to someone not of his time and place. Still, when he begins disclosing his fascinating amount of knowledge about Shakespeare's era, his experience shines through. And Levi himself clearly has the mentality of a poet, as his literary analyses are - even if you don't always agree - truly absorbing.
I firmly believe that failing ambitiously is better than succeeding with mediocrity. In Levi's case, he hasn't failed - he's just over-egged the pudding somewhat. This is a multi-faceted book: slow reading but worthy, poetic, sometimes fantastical but sometimes deeply pragmatic. One of the great trends of modern Shakespearean scholarship is to accept that there is much we will never know about William Shakespeare (as there is much we can never know of any genius, let alone one who lived in an era where few personal records remain), but we can make some reasonable assumptions. There were parts of Shakespeare's mind that would have been inaccessible even to those closest to him. There were parts of his life which are lost due to carelessness, a lack of foresight, and simply the verisimilitudes of the era. But beyond that, Shakespeare was a man, a jobbing writer, and a product of his time. In that regard, we can look to the world around him, to the idiosyncrasies of the specific theatre companies he wrote for, and the monarchs, commoners, and systems he was part of. We may not find all the answers there but, if we can believe Levi and his cohort, we can at least hazard a guess.… (meer)
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"La domanda cui più mi premeva rispondere, ridotta al nocciolo, era quali forme avesse assunto l'occupazione macedone dell'Afghanistan e che cosa fosse accaduto di quei remoti regni ellenistici."
(pagina 14)
A proposito del Tosi, si poteva evitare di inserire il suo ricordo: nulla aggiunge al pregio del libro. L'ideale sarebbe stato l'aver approfondito le motivazioni del viaggio da un punto di vista esterno all'autore, ma non è l'intento del ricordo.
Un libro da leggere anche solo per avere un'idea di un paese prima degli invasori (i sovietici) e prima degli invasati (i Talebani).
A proposito di Bruce Chatwin: incastrato nel titolo solo come specchietto?:
la cosa parrebbe affermativa, dato che nel libro non ha opinioni personali o, almeno, non riportate da Levi.
Babur il Conquistatore era un imperatore indiano che preferiva le regioni dell'Afghanistan, ed infatti ivi è seppellito e ivi troviamo l'iscrizione da cui il titolo del libro:
"...questo giardino luminoso del re angelo prediletto da dio, le cui spoglie riposano nel giardino del paradiso, ,,,Babur il Conquistatore..."
(pagina 45)
"Imparammo ad amare Faizabad, e capimmo perché sia il tenente Wood sia Marco Polo vi avessero soggiornato volentieri. Ci piacevano le botteghe e i buffoni di paese, le greggi immense e i pastorelli smilzi, ci piaceva la sensazione di essere al termine di una lunga strada, come nell'ultimo villaggio alla fine di una ferrovia. Senza dubbio gli elementi principali di tanta piacevolezza erano il fiume gelido e le montagne, il silenzio e l'assenza totale di notizie che imponeva una percezione del tempo diversa, nonché la semplicità e la leggerezza dell'architettura."
(pagina 175)
"I monaci nella caverna illuminata
Amano solo ciò che non può amare, e si salveranno."
(pagina 275)… (meer)