[ilds] Somewhere between Calabria and Corfu theblue really begins

[Bruce Redwine]

Gotta say no to the C. Morley allusion and go with a reference to N. Douglas, as Grove notes below.  Along this line, I always thought Iago's slur, "making the beast with two backs," was original with Shakespeare, but it wasn't — a note in the Arden Othello says the phrase was proverbial.  Still, Shakespeare gets the credit, and Durrell will too.


BR





On Sep 8, 2010, at 2:27 AM, Wilson, Fraser wrote:

> 
> Douglas certainly knew how to describe a boat trip - as in South Wind,
> below - which can be grabbed online from Project Gutenburg at no cost.
> 
> 
> 
> His companion, meanwhile, beheld the panorama in all its nightmarish
> splendour, as it drifted past him. He saw the bluffs of feathery
> pumice, the lava precipices--frozen cataracts of white, black, blood
> red, pale grey and sombre brown, smeared over with a vitreous enamel of
> obsidian or pierced by oily, writhing dykes that blazed with metallic
> scintillations. Anon came some yawning cleft or an assemblage of dizzy
> rock-needles, fused into whimsical tints and attitudes, spiky,
> distorted, over-toppling; then a bold tufa rampart, immaculate in its
> beauty, stainless as a curtain of silk. And as the boat moved on he
> looked into horrid dells which the rains had torn out of the loose
> scoriae. Gaping wounds, they wore the bright hues of corruption. Their
> flanks were blotched with a livid nitrous efflorescence, with flaring
> sulphur, unhealthy verdure of pitchstone, streaks of arsenical
> vermilion; their beds--a frantic maze of boulders.
> 
> He beheld this crazy stratification, this chaos of incandescent nature,
> sent in a flame of deep blue sky and sea. It lay there calmly, like
> some phantasmagoric flower, some monstrous rose that swoons away, with
> upturned face, in a solar caress.
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ilds-bounces at lists.uvic.ca [mailto:ilds-bounces at lists.uvic.ca] On
> Behalf Of gkoger at mindspring.com
> Sent: 08 September 2010 03:44
> To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca
> Subject: Re: [ilds] Somewhere between Calabria and Corfu theblue really
> begins
> 
> Gissing? As in George Gissing, who wrote /By the Ionian Sea/? 
> 
> I've always assumed that Durrell's line is a reference to Norman Douglas
> and his /Old Calabria/, in which Douglas devotes several pages to
> Gissing, by the way. In doing so Durrell acknowledges a debt to Douglas
> AND announces that he is moving beyond him, geographically and
> otherwise. Douglas devoted one short book to Greece but his interests
> lay primarily in Italy.
> 
> Grove
> 
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: "Godshalk, William (godshawl)" <godshawl at ucmail.uc.edu>
>> Sent: Sep 7, 2010 7:23 PM
>> To: "ilds at lists.uvic.ca" <ilds at lists.uvic.ca>
>> Subject: Re: [ilds] Somewhere between Calabria and Corfu the blue
> really	begins
>> 
>> Well, there are plenty of references to ships, islands, etc. No Corfu
> though.
>> 
>> The book ends with: "clear immortal blue." 
>> 
>> Did Larry read it? I leave it to you. 
>> 
>> O, yes, the chief character is a man called Gissing. 
>> 
>> 
>> W. L. Godshalk *
>> Department of English    *           *
>> University of Cincinnati*   * Stellar Disorder  *
>> OH 45221-0069 *  *
>> ________________________________________
>> From: ilds-bounces at lists.uvic.ca [ilds-bounces at lists.uvic.ca] On Behalf
> Of Bruce Redwine [bredwine1968 at earthlink.net]
>> Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 8:25 PM
>> To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca
>> Cc: Bruce Redwine
>> Subject: Re: [ilds] Somewhere between Calabria and Corfu the blue
> really        begins
>> 
>> Does Morely's book have related subject matter, i.e., the Ionian or the
> Aegean?  The next question:  any evidence that LD knew of this title?
> I'm inclined to think it's a coincidence.
>> 
>> 
>> BR
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Sep 7, 2010, at 5:01 PM, Godshalk, William (godshawl) wrote:
>> 
>>> "Where the Blue Begins" is a book by Christopher Morley published in
> 1922.
>>> 
>>> "Somewhere between Calabria and Corfu the blue really begins."
>>> 
>>> Is Durrell's "really" a reply and a correction?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> W. L. Godshalk *
>>> Department of English    *           *
>>> University of Cincinnati*   * Stellar Disorder  *
>>> OH 45221-0069 *  *
>> 

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