Books by Guy Davenport

In his 1989 book on Balthus—the storied and controversial artist who worked in Paris throughout the twentieth century—Guy Davenport gives one of the most nuanced, literary, and compelling readings of the work of this master. Reading it today highlights the change in perspectives on sexuality and nudity in art in the past thirty years.Written over several years in his notebooks, Davenport’s distinct reflections on Balthus’s paintings try to explain why his work is so radical, and why it has so often come under scrutiny for its depiction of girls and women. Davenport throws the lens back on the viewer and asks: is it us or Balthus who reads sexuality into these paintings? For Davenport, the answer is clear: Balthus may indeed show us periods in adolescent development that are uncomfortable to view, but the eroticization exists primarily on the part of the viewer. Arguing that Balthus’s figures are erotic only if we make them so, and that their innocence is more present than anything pornographic in them, Davenport posits that the paintings hold up a mirror to our own perversities and force us, difficultly, to confront them. He writes, “The nearer an artist works to the erotic politics of his own culture, the more he gets its concerned attention. Gauguin’s naked Polynesian girls, brown and remote, escape the scandal of Balthus’s, although a Martian observer would not see the distinction.” Davenport’s critique helps us understand Balthus in our times—something we need more than ever as we crucially confront sexual politics in visual art.

An epistolary exchange that highlights two singular intellects, their disparate approaches to literature and their mutual admiration.

Open the pages of The Hunter Gracchus and step into the remarkable mind of Guy Davenport, one of this country's most provocative writers. Moving effortlessly from snake handling to Wallace Stevens, these essays take delight in an immense range of topics, including art and architecture, religion, and literature.

A collection of stories touches on art, philosophy, and literature, often featuring historical figures and places.Since the publication of Tatlin! in 1974, Guy Davenport has established himself as one of the most original and stimulating writers of fiction today. Twelve Stories draws the best work from Davenports early collections: Tatlin!, Apples and Pears, and The Drummer of the Eleventh North Devonshire Fusiliers. Chosen by the author, these stories are nowhere else in print. Guy Davenports short stories are journeys through history and the imagination. Radically original and surprising, comic and sensuous, Davenports virtuoso talent charms us into a world both familiar and strange. Whether in the timelessness of deep woods or fleeing the bloody dreamscape of battle, Davenports characters embody lifes contradictions.