The Ruin of Kasch (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Roberto Calasso
- First Published: 1983
- Type of Work: Historical novel
- Time of Work: The French Revolution and the Napoleonic era
- Setting: France
- Principal Characters: Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Napoleon
- Genres: Long fiction, Historical fiction
- Subjects: Politics, France or French people, Abandoned children, Kings, queens, or royalty, Existentialism, Catholics or Catholic Church, French Revolution, Anthropology or anthropologists, Animals, Diplomacy or diplomats
- Locales: France
In 1993, a brilliant, genre-defying book entitled The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony was published in the United States, the first of Italian author and publisher Roberto Calasso’s works to be translated into English. Ostensibly a simple compendium of Greek myths, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony (originally published as Le nozze di Cadmo e Armonia, 1988) was in fact an imaginative reworking of these familiar stories. Calasso’s erudition was astonishing. He seemed to have read everything, ferreted out the most obscure variations of each tale, and consulted the...
[The entire page is 2352 words long]
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