"Need I insist that the only enemy of the mature marriage is monogamy? That anything less than sexual multiplicity . . . is naive? That our sexual selves are merely idylers in a vast wood?" Thus the central theme of John Hawkes's widely acclaimed novel The Blood Oranges is boldly asserted by its narrator, Cyril, the archetypal multisexualist. Likening himself to a white bull on Love's tapestry, he pursues his romantic vision in a primitive Mediterranean landscape. There two couples—Cyril and Fiona, Hugh and Catherine—mingle their loves in an "lllyria" that brings to mind the equally timeless countryside of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.
| ISBN: | 9780811200615 |
| Publication date: | 1st February 1972 |
| Author: | John Hawkes |
| Publisher: | New Directions Books an imprint of New Directions |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 284 pages |
| Genres: |
Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers Modern and Contemporary Fiction |