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Pharos and Pharillon
Alexandria, Egypt: at one point a trading hub and a cosmopolitan crossroads of the world. It was also the place where, during World War I, E.M. Forster fell in love with a young Egyptian man. Pharos and Pharillon is a collection of essays and articles he wrote about Alexandria, mostly written during that time and dedicated to that man, Mohammed el Adl.
Organized in two parts, the book opens with Pharos and seven stories that paint a poetic picture of the ancient city and its history. The second half, Pharillon, consists of four stories, followed by Forster's moving introduction of the Greek poet C. P. Cavafy to the English-speaking world. The division in the book is signaled by Cavafy's now famous poem, "The God Abandons Antony."
The sketches were written for the local Egyptian press and were also published in The Nation and Athenaeum, a British political newspaper owned by Leonard Woolf, husband of writer Virginia Woolf. The Woolfs published Pharos and Pharillon in 1923, and with its poignant accounts of the events and history of one of the first global cities, it remains an enlightening portrait, and a useful guidebook, into modern times.
Organized in two parts, the book opens with Pharos and seven stories that paint a poetic picture of the ancient city and its history. The second half, Pharillon, consists of four stories, followed by Forster's moving introduction of the Greek poet C. P. Cavafy to the English-speaking world. The division in the book is signaled by Cavafy's now famous poem, "The God Abandons Antony."
The sketches were written for the local Egyptian press and were also published in The Nation and Athenaeum, a British political newspaper owned by Leonard Woolf, husband of writer Virginia Woolf. The Woolfs published Pharos and Pharillon in 1923, and with its poignant accounts of the events and history of one of the first global cities, it remains an enlightening portrait, and a useful guidebook, into modern times.
108 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1998
About the author
E.M. Forster
538 books3,844 followersEdward Morgan Forster, generally published as E.M. Forster, was an novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society. His humanistic impulse toward understanding and sympathy may be aptly summed up in the epigraph to his 1910 novel Howards End: "Only connect".
He had five novels published in his lifetime, achieving his greatest success with A Passage to India (1924) which takes as its subject the relationship between East and West, seen through the lens of India in the later days of the British Raj.
Forster's views as a secular humanist are at the heart of his work, which often depicts the pursuit of personal connections in spite of the restrictions of contemporary society. He is noted for his use of symbolism as a technique in his novels, and he has been criticised for his attachment to mysticism. His other works include Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908) and Maurice (1971), his posthumously published novel which tells of the coming of age of an explicitly gay male character.
He had five novels published in his lifetime, achieving his greatest success with A Passage to India (1924) which takes as its subject the relationship between East and West, seen through the lens of India in the later days of the British Raj.
Forster's views as a secular humanist are at the heart of his work, which often depicts the pursuit of personal connections in spite of the restrictions of contemporary society. He is noted for his use of symbolism as a technique in his novels, and he has been criticised for his attachment to mysticism. His other works include Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908) and Maurice (1971), his posthumously published novel which tells of the coming of age of an explicitly gay male character.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
March 5, 2016
This is an utterly delightful book of essays on the subject of Alexandria, Egypt. E.M. Forster writes with a crystalline prose which at times rises to the memorable, as when he described "The Solitary Place" near Lake Mariout:
The book ends with an essay on Constantine P. Cavafy, the poet of Alexandria, with a few excerpts from his work translated, I suspect, by Forster himself. This is a gem of a book I recommend to everyone.
But what impresses one most in the scene is the quiet persistence of the earth. There is so little soil about and she does so much with it. Year after year she has given this extraordinary show to a few Bedouins, has covered the Mareotic civilization with dust and raised flowers from its shards. Will she do the same to our own time and barbed wire? Probably not, for man has now got so far ahead of other forms of life that he will scarcely permit the flowers to grow over his works again. His old tins will be buried under new tins. This is the triumph of civilization, I suppose, the final imprint of the human upon this devoted planet, which should exhibit in its apotheosis a solid crust of machinery and graves. In cities one sees this development coming, but in solitary places, however austere, the primaeval softness persists, the vegetation still flowers and seeds unchecked, and the air still blows untainted hot from the land or cold from the sea.And this was written back in 1923!
The book ends with an essay on Constantine P. Cavafy, the poet of Alexandria, with a few excerpts from his work translated, I suspect, by Forster himself. This is a gem of a book I recommend to everyone.
July 11, 2022
This is fascinating for EM Forster fans and completists. He was stationed in Alexandria in WWI, and wrote a short history and guide, and this selection of remarkable essays.
His brilliant prose shines in these essays, richly responsive emotionally and imaginatively to Alexandria’s situation and history. The essays suggest to me he was possibly playing around with a longer piece somehow referencing Alexandria. He was always a writer strongly influenced by geography and local nature - very clear in Howard’s End and culminating in A Passage to India: but here the sense of place is foregrounded utterly.
The first, to me best part focuses on the ancient history, with the second part on more modern history, ending in a piece on the Greek Alexandrian poet Cavafy who Forster introduced to the English speaking world.
The pieces are fact-based but certainly not non-fiction - they almost tend to novelisations of historical incident. A sort of prose equivalent of Cavafy’s project in poetry.
His brilliant prose shines in these essays, richly responsive emotionally and imaginatively to Alexandria’s situation and history. The essays suggest to me he was possibly playing around with a longer piece somehow referencing Alexandria. He was always a writer strongly influenced by geography and local nature - very clear in Howard’s End and culminating in A Passage to India: but here the sense of place is foregrounded utterly.
The first, to me best part focuses on the ancient history, with the second part on more modern history, ending in a piece on the Greek Alexandrian poet Cavafy who Forster introduced to the English speaking world.
The pieces are fact-based but certainly not non-fiction - they almost tend to novelisations of historical incident. A sort of prose equivalent of Cavafy’s project in poetry.
September 12, 2020
Lovely, irreverent sketches of Alexandrian history. The first half on ancient Alexandria is much more enjoyable, the modern half is very scathing and feels quite random, but it does end on a high discussing Cavafy's poetry, stood at an angle to the world.
"Everything passes, or almost everything. Only the climate, only the north wind and the sea remain as they were when Menelaus, the first visitor, landed upon Ras el Tin, and exacted from Proteus the promise of life everlasting."
"Everything passes, or almost everything. Only the climate, only the north wind and the sea remain as they were when Menelaus, the first visitor, landed upon Ras el Tin, and exacted from Proteus the promise of life everlasting."
October 22, 2013
Very poetic and determinedly beautiful. The chapter on Cavafy is a jewel.
February 15, 2022
After reading the Alexandria Quartet I wasn't quite ready to leave Alexandria, so I picked up E.M. Forsters's Pharos and Pharillon.
P&P is a small book of essays on Forster's reflections on Alexandria as well as some history, religion, descriptions of the landscape, the cotton market, and the people. A particularly funny story is one called Eliza in Egypt. Little did I know that this was from a derived from her letters of her actual visit and now that I know that these misadventures of Eliza Fay actually happened, they may not be quite as funny. Forster pays special homage to the Greek poet Cavafy.
It was a nice bit of dessert after reading the Quartet!
P&P is a small book of essays on Forster's reflections on Alexandria as well as some history, religion, descriptions of the landscape, the cotton market, and the people. A particularly funny story is one called Eliza in Egypt. Little did I know that this was from a derived from her letters of her actual visit and now that I know that these misadventures of Eliza Fay actually happened, they may not be quite as funny. Forster pays special homage to the Greek poet Cavafy.
It was a nice bit of dessert after reading the Quartet!
October 1, 2014
E.M. Forster shares his love and deep appreciation of Alexandria, Egypt by evoking the sense of being "on the margins" that he felt Alexandria embodied. On the coast of Africa, peopled by Egyptians, Greeks and Jews, inhabiting a city of steeped in history, the city imparts a poetic feeling to those who position themselves to receive it. Lawrence Durell in his Quartet and C.P. Cavafy, the great poet wrote both drew from this well.
Forster shares the interest of Cavafy in a "different Greece", not "Athens and Sparta, so drubbed into us at school" but the Greek legacy from Alexander and the Ptolemies, Greek Pharaohs descended from Alexander's generals, through the Byzantine Empire.
He brings a characteristic wit and skeptical eye toward the rich as here when he describes Clement of Alexandria, an early Christian. Clement wrote 'The Rich Man's Treatise' and "handles with delicacy a problem on which business men are naturally sensitive and arrives a the comforting conclusion that Christ did not mean what he said".
Often when I read books from the early 20th century or earlier times I make allowances for, and gird myself against, the offensive racism and Anti-Semitism that was so openly on display. It is important to note that authors of this time do not deserve this free pass of being "just a product of their time". The works of thinking people as represented by E.M. Forster prove that, even then, racism was a failure of sympathy and a weakness of character. Forster rose above this and in so doing demonstrates that in our own time we can not fall back on cultural norms or whatever justification we manufacture to excuse bigotry. There is a glittering vein of gold in human action, celebrating nature, our bodies and each other. Forster mined this vein; Pharos and Pharillon is one of his gems.
Forster shares the interest of Cavafy in a "different Greece", not "Athens and Sparta, so drubbed into us at school" but the Greek legacy from Alexander and the Ptolemies, Greek Pharaohs descended from Alexander's generals, through the Byzantine Empire.
He brings a characteristic wit and skeptical eye toward the rich as here when he describes Clement of Alexandria, an early Christian. Clement wrote 'The Rich Man's Treatise' and "handles with delicacy a problem on which business men are naturally sensitive and arrives a the comforting conclusion that Christ did not mean what he said".
Often when I read books from the early 20th century or earlier times I make allowances for, and gird myself against, the offensive racism and Anti-Semitism that was so openly on display. It is important to note that authors of this time do not deserve this free pass of being "just a product of their time". The works of thinking people as represented by E.M. Forster prove that, even then, racism was a failure of sympathy and a weakness of character. Forster rose above this and in so doing demonstrates that in our own time we can not fall back on cultural norms or whatever justification we manufacture to excuse bigotry. There is a glittering vein of gold in human action, celebrating nature, our bodies and each other. Forster mined this vein; Pharos and Pharillon is one of his gems.
January 15, 2018
Hmm... mixed feelings on this small collection of stories cum essays cum historical facts... the blending of the genres is quite interesting. The difficulty is the shortness of the texts, reading more like vignettes, that make it hard for me as a reader to connect with anything except the place. And as someone who has never been to Alexandria nor share Forster's infatuation with it, it's hard to relate. Still, the writing and the references are beautifully rendered.
January 8, 2015
A minor bit of Forster, but damn, this man can write.How about this for an arresting and succinct first sentence? "The career of Menelaus was a series of small mishaps." The final essay on Cavafy's poetry is lovely and acute.
October 6, 2016
I mean, seriously, folks: E.M. Forster is a great writer. He superbly arranges his ideas and thinks great thoughts, while he crafts phrases of sublime beauty.
June 9, 2023
This short book, subtitled 'An Evocation of Alexandria' was first published in 1923 after Forster returned from Alexandria where he had been a Red Cross volunteer during World War One. In his conclusion Forster says, "A serious history of Alexandria has not yet been written, and perhaps the foregoing sketches may have indicated how varied, how impressive such a history might be."
He starts with Menelaus and he ends with C.P. Cavafy taking stops along the way with Jews, Christians - of different types, Byzantines, Romans, and even a diversion with a British woman, Eliza Fay. Who writes about her visit to Egypt in a book called, 'The Original Letters from India of Mrs Eliza Fay.' He describes Eliza Fay, after quoting from one of her letters, saying that she has been 'Rather cattish, that last remark, considering how much the Consul had done for her. But a cat she is- spirited and observant, but a cat' That last sentence might equally serve to describe how Forster comes across in this book.
Perhaps the most famous part of this book - and famous is probably stretching it - is the essay of Cavafy, which is probably responsible for introducing Cavafy to the English and which gives a description of Cavafy - "...a Greek gentleman in a straw hat standing absolutely motionless at a slight angle to the universe" - that has, to quote the introduction to the Oxford World's Classic edition of Cavafy's poetry, "...become a cliche [but that] does not alter the act that it is one of the most perceptive comments ever made on Cavafy's view of the world, and it can be a useful key for exploring his poetic universe."
Overall I found this a fascinating read. Forster's writing is lovely. Clear, sardonic, and informative.
He starts with Menelaus and he ends with C.P. Cavafy taking stops along the way with Jews, Christians - of different types, Byzantines, Romans, and even a diversion with a British woman, Eliza Fay. Who writes about her visit to Egypt in a book called, 'The Original Letters from India of Mrs Eliza Fay.' He describes Eliza Fay, after quoting from one of her letters, saying that she has been 'Rather cattish, that last remark, considering how much the Consul had done for her. But a cat she is- spirited and observant, but a cat' That last sentence might equally serve to describe how Forster comes across in this book.
Perhaps the most famous part of this book - and famous is probably stretching it - is the essay of Cavafy, which is probably responsible for introducing Cavafy to the English and which gives a description of Cavafy - "...a Greek gentleman in a straw hat standing absolutely motionless at a slight angle to the universe" - that has, to quote the introduction to the Oxford World's Classic edition of Cavafy's poetry, "...become a cliche [but that] does not alter the act that it is one of the most perceptive comments ever made on Cavafy's view of the world, and it can be a useful key for exploring his poetic universe."
Overall I found this a fascinating read. Forster's writing is lovely. Clear, sardonic, and informative.
December 10, 2018
Sketches of Alexandria, it's origins, architecture (the famous lighthouse), it's founding (Alexander), notables (especially the early Church Fathers) and notable industries (hashish?, cotton) associated with the city. Particularly interesting, from a literary perspective, is that C.P. Cavafy's poetry is essentially introduced to English readers here. About 100 pages. A slight book, in Forster's clear, characteristically humane and ironic style. A delightful way to spend a drizzly December evening.
October 16, 2017
A wonderful take on the old area of Alexandria and the mid 20th century update. Not a travel book but it will make you want to visit.
April 9, 2020
Tell me something I don't know.
Thanks! There's so much I didn't know, and still don't, but I love being enlightened.
Take an armchair journey with E. M. Forster on Project Gutenberg ;0)
Thanks! There's so much I didn't know, and still don't, but I love being enlightened.
Take an armchair journey with E. M. Forster on Project Gutenberg ;0)
May 17, 2021
Interesting little read.
June 9, 2023
Interesting… more profound than I was looking for but very neat… a sort of literary history/anthropology I guess
January 4, 2020
Even E. M. Forster can't be great every time. I just didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. But the writing was descriptive and poetic, with many beautiful passages. Would recommend for the EMF completist.
January 9, 2023
beautifully beautifully written and absolutely stunning in the historical segments but once you get to the modern egypt stories it’s just white european condescension. the brand of racism where they talk about places being wild and untouched and gorgeous and spiritual and then talk about the people as being poor and unfortunate and uncivilized. so unfortunate as the first half was just stunning.
Want to read
March 5, 2016Free download available at InternetArchive.
December 21, 2016
A number of short stories and reflections on ancient and modern (early 1900s) Alexandria, Egypt. Wonderful travel guide in its own way!
February 12, 2020
a small treasure
October 10, 2020
Curious little book about Alexandria, Egypt, noted primarily for being the introduction to C. P. Cavafy for English speakers.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews