Pagan Light

Dreams of Freedom and Beauty in Capri

Nonfiction, Travel, Europe, Italy, Biography & Memoir, Artists, Architects & Photographers, Art & Architecture
Cover of the book Pagan Light by Jamie James, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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Author: Jamie James ISBN: 9780374715564
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publication: March 19, 2019
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Language: English
Author: Jamie James
ISBN: 9780374715564
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication: March 19, 2019
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Language: English

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

"Pagan Light is mesmerizing. Every detail is compelling. I felt I was reading a family history of a family far more interesting than mine." --Edmund White, author of Our Young Man

A rich, intimate embrace of Capri, which was a magnet for artistic renegades and a place of erotic refuge

Isolated and arrestingly beautiful, the island of Capri has been a refuge for renegade artists and writers fleeing the strictures of conventional society from the time of Augustus, who bought the island in 29 BC after defeating Antony and Cleopatra, to the early twentieth century, when the poet and novelist Jacques d’Adelswärd-Fersen was in exile there after being charged with corrupting minors, to the 1960s, when Truman Capote spent time on the island. We also meet the Marquis de Sade, Goethe, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Compton Mackenzie, Rilke, Lenin, and Gorky, among other astonishingly vivid characters.

Grounded in a deep intimacy with Capri and full of captivating anecdotes, Jamie James’s Pagan Light tells how a tiny island served as a wildly permissive haven for people—queer, criminal, sick, marginalized, and simply crazy—who had nowhere else to go.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

"Pagan Light is mesmerizing. Every detail is compelling. I felt I was reading a family history of a family far more interesting than mine." --Edmund White, author of Our Young Man

A rich, intimate embrace of Capri, which was a magnet for artistic renegades and a place of erotic refuge

Isolated and arrestingly beautiful, the island of Capri has been a refuge for renegade artists and writers fleeing the strictures of conventional society from the time of Augustus, who bought the island in 29 BC after defeating Antony and Cleopatra, to the early twentieth century, when the poet and novelist Jacques d’Adelswärd-Fersen was in exile there after being charged with corrupting minors, to the 1960s, when Truman Capote spent time on the island. We also meet the Marquis de Sade, Goethe, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Compton Mackenzie, Rilke, Lenin, and Gorky, among other astonishingly vivid characters.

Grounded in a deep intimacy with Capri and full of captivating anecdotes, Jamie James’s Pagan Light tells how a tiny island served as a wildly permissive haven for people—queer, criminal, sick, marginalized, and simply crazy—who had nowhere else to go.

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