The Unquiet Grave: A Word Cycle - Tapa blanda

Palinurus, the doomed pilot of Aeneas who met a terrible fate at sea, was the persona adopted by critic Cyril Connolly to express his own pessimism and bitter self analysis. Written during the Second World War, during a time of personal grief, The Unquiet Grave is both a powerful vision of a civilisation that has endured since classical times and a contemplation of the human condition in all its darkness and absurdity. Palinurus, the inward-looking artist, meditates on marriage, religion,art and literature, finding consolation from the bleakness of the world in thought, in the wisdom of antiquity and in the mind's ability to reason.

Cyril Connolly was born at Coventry in 1903 and was educated at Eton and Oxford. An essayist, critic, editor and novelist, he was, until his death in 1974, considered one of the most significant figures on the British literary scene. His other booksinclude Enemies of Promise, The Rock Pool, The Condemned Playground, Previous Convictions and The Evening Colonnade. He was awarded the CBE in 1972.