Wednesday 8 September 2010

The Descent of Mont Ventoux

Petrarch's Secretum (My Secret Book) is one of my favourite books of all time – so modern, so revealing, for all the classics quotes and the learned references interspersed in it.

We have just published an updated edition of JG Nichols's wonderful translation, which I originally published during my time at Hesperus.

The book is a beauty, and I hope some of you will check it out. It's out now, and you can buy it from our website or any good book retailer. In it, you'll also find some bonus material, such as "A Draft of a Letter to Posterity" – which begins: "Although I much doubt whether my obscure little name ca have reached you at such a distance of time and space, it is possible that you have some inkling of me – "The Allegorical Ascent of Mont Ventoux", "Books, the Best Company" and "Italy, My Native Land" (the last two pieces were not included in the Hesperus edition).

To celebrate the publication of this book I have decided to buy a bottle of La Tour de Marrenon, Côtes du Ventoux, which I have emptied to the drains one minute past – and which helps me sink gently Lethe-wards.

Goodnight –

AG

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