Abba Abba by Anthony Burgess. Paperback first edition published by Faber in 1987.

ABBA ABBA is about two poets who may or may not have met in Rome in 1820-1821. One was John Keats, who was dying in a house on the Spanish Steps. The other was Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli a great poet, little known outside Rome, since he wrote in the rough, dirty, blasphemous dialect of the Roman streets. The first part of the book is about Keats and Belli. The second part presents Belli himself as poet, translated by Mr Burgess. If Belli knew Keats, did Keats influence him? If Keats knew Belli, would Keats, if he had lived, have become a sort of English Belli? Hard and unanswerable questions. Anthony Burgess means his book merely to be enjoyable and perhaps touching.

Good general condition. Pages yellowed with a little water staining to the top edge of the first dozen or so pages, does not affect the text. A little creasing and wear to the covers and spine.

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