See Rome (and die?)

Today is the 25th anniversary of the death of Anthony Burgess, my favourite writer. I blogged about him yesterday. I do it again today, given the anniversary. I wrote last year a full blog post about when I learned of his death, which I suggest you read. Today I still blog about this novel and Burgess' report with Rome, which is an ambiguous and paradoxical one. The video below illustrates this very well, in his own words. He died in London, but I suspect his spirit to haunt Rome (metaphorically of course). Since I have started re-reading Beard's Roman Women, I have been wanting to visit Rome even more. Although not to die there, or afterwards.

Rome in the Rain

As it will soon be the 25th anniversary of the death of Anthony Burgess, I have been rereading Beard’s Roman Women. One of his lesser known novels, but one of my favourite, in spite of having a rubbish title. Rome in the Rain, as Burgess would have preferred it, and which is the title used in most of its translations, is far better. In it, scriptwriter and new widower Ronald Beard is trying to rebuilt his life in Rome with his new, younger, Italian (and thus exotic) lover Paola, while (possibly) haunted by (the ghost of) his first wife Leonora. It’s a modern day telling of the myth of Orpheus, with literary references to Mary Shelley and her Frankenstein, Byron, the Holy Grail, and a lot of other things. It is a short novel that is nevertheless very dense. At its centre there is Rome, the ever decadent city that is also a gate to the Underworld as well as the crossroads where all civilisations join, clash and die.

Rome in the Rain

"Rome's just a city like anywhere else. A vastly overrated city, I'd say. It trades on belief just as Statford trades on Shakespeare."

Anthony Burgess

I was recently plugging an upcoming exhibition held in Manchester by the Anthony Burgess Foundation, about Rome as seen through the eyes of Burgess and expressed in his writing.The above quote is just one aspect of the Eternal city he depicted. The exhibition is called "Rome in the Rain". As I mentioned in my previous post, it is the French title of Beard's Roman Women, one of my favourite novels of Burgess. I have recently learned (from Andrew Biswell) that Rome in the Rain was the title Burgess wanted for the book, but that the American publisher imposed another one. I never liked the official title. Anyway, I feel kind of vindicated that the upcoming exhibition will have the right title. So I am plugging the event again and its lovely evocative name.

Rome in Manchester

I received an invitation from the Anthony Burgess Society for the preview of an upcoming exhibition in their headquarters in Manchester. The exhibition is called Rome in the Rain, which is the translation of the French title of his novel Beard's Roman Women, one of his lesser known works, yet a brilliant novel. So it will be about Burgess' Rome, as well as the one depicted in the above mentioned novel and in Abba Abba, another great piece. And I guess his other books when the city is featured (as it is featured a lot). I have never been to Rome, I have only experienced it through fiction, in particular the fiction of my favourite writer. It is a shame I cannot go to Manchester any time soon, neither for the preview, nor for the exhibition itself. Too much to do here, what with the new home and all. I would have loved to visit Rome through Manchester.

Anthony Burgess in Montreal

I found this in a newsagent on Mont-Royal Avenue. You can see here the French translations of Earthly Powers and Beard's Roman Women by Anthony Burgess. Two great novels by my favourite writer. In a trivial newsagent with lots of magazines, a whole lot of crime books and bestsellers, there were these two great, these two amazing novels. I have even been unable to find Beard's Roman Women in original English so far. A book that contributed to the development of my love for Italy. Anyway, I find it reassuring to see these books in such an unlikely place. I love my city a bit more.

My favourite writer on Rome

Anthony Burgess on Rome, a city he lived for a good while, and which inspired one of my favourite of his novels (but the quote is not from it, as far as I can remember):

"Rome's just a city like anywhere else. A vastly overrated city, I'd say. It trades on belief just as Statford trades on Shakespeare."

I have never been to Rome, and I doubt he seriously disliked the city all that much, but he seems to have the same love/hate relationship with it as I have with Italy as a whole. I decided to put that quote here as I want to go to Rome one day, but I am in the same time wary of what I can find there. I can love it, hate it, or both.