Frederick Rolfe: Baron Corvo: a biography.

by Miriam J. Benkovitz

Benkovitz, Miriam J., Frederick Baron Corvo, A Biography

332 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[Timothy E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Benkovitz has written an engaging biography about this brilliant, proud, flawed man. You really get a sense of the dichotomy between Rolfe's aspirations as a priest, scholar, and artist, and the bleak reality of his everyday life. Benkovitz does a great job of blending anecdotes and samples of the copious letters Rolfe wrote to his friends and enemies to immerse you in Baron Corvo's world.

[Bobbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well researched exposé on Rolfe that one surmises has been got from his voluminous extant correspondence written, one further surmises, Rolfe wrote always with his famous outsize Watermans fountain pen. I was drawn to read this biography (grubbed-up from my collection of boxed Rolfian books lain for years in a dusty corner) after recently finishing Donald Week's riveting 'Corvo' while also reading at the same time Rolfe's aesthetic 'Desire and Pursuit of the Whole'. The nature of the man is so intriguing of his time and place and eccentricities of word and deed as to make one want more of him. Benkovitz has given more by following a diligent sequential pattern of his years and Rolfian authorship history that makes for straightforward reading ~ though one may suspect the detail of 'this and that' of Rolfe's calendar of events could appear tedious in the reading at times ~ though not to me a longtime Corvo fan. A very useful biography to be read alongside other bios as said (e.g. Donald Weeks) notwithstanding the reading of Frederick Rolfe's book list.