Robert Dessaix
Author of Night Letters
About the Author
Robert Dessaix was born on February 17, 1944 in Sydney, Australia. He attended the Australian National University and Moscow State University. He later taught Russian studies at the Australian National University and the University of New South Wales and translated a number of Russian books into show more English. His first book was his autobiography, A Mother's Disgrace. His other books include Arabesques : A Tale of Double Lives, Night Letters, Corfu, Twilight of Love: Travels with Turgenev, (and so forth), and As I Was Saying: a Collection of Musings. His book, What Days Are For, won the 2016 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature in the nonfiction category. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Robert Dessaix and Ramona Koval/Flickr: anetz
Works by Robert Dessaix
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Miazmov, Igor
Дессе, Роберт
Jones, T.R. - Birthdate
- 1944-02-17
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Australia
- Birthplace
- Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Places of residence
- Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Moscow, Soviet Union - Education
- Australian National University (PhD ∙ Russian Literature)
Moscow State University (Nongrad) - Occupations
- writer
professor
translator
travel writer
dramaturg
essayist - Relationships
- Timms, Peter (partner)
Stern, Ludmila (student)
Ulman, Michael (collaborator) - Organizations
- Australian National University
University of New South Wales
ABC Radio - Awards and honors
- NBC Banjo Award for Non-Fiction (1994 ∙ shortlist)
Australian Literature Society Gold Medal (1997)
ABA Book of the Year Award (1996)
Victorian Premier's Literary Award (2005)
The Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction (2005)
New South Wales Premier's Literary Award (2005) (show all 9)
Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction (2005)
Margaret Scott Prize (2007)
Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature (2022) - Agent
- Australian Literary Management
Members
Reviews
Night letters : a journey through Switzerland and… by Robert Dessaix
A fascinating meditation on storytelling: why we tell them, how we tell them, and whence we draw our inspirations. "Meditation" is the crucial word, since this novel is structured as a series of letters from an Australian man who has been diagnosed with a fatal illness and is travelling through Italy, all the while experiencing, pondering, storytelling. A strange, beautifully melancholic moment in Australian letters.
Ambling along in Melbourne, I found a signed copy of Twilight of Love in one of those swap libraries that people attach to their fences. This copy had never been read. I confess to being a fan of Robert Dessaix. Mainly due to my memories of the time when he hosted the Book Show on ABC radio. Ahh...those were the days. I admired his intelligence and archly incisive asides. He sometimes writes as he speaks - which is good because I could hear his voice. I chose to read this book at the same time as reading Wuthering Heights so (in my mind) the two are slightly interwoven. Both are about forms of love. It was an easy and enjoyable read, though a somewhat directionless, amble though time and place. But I love an amble and was happy to follow him around. As best I recall, Dessaix's final words in the book were that he should re-read Turgenev. This baffled me a little. He gave no real clues as to why Turgenev was so interesting. The thread that bound the amble to some kind of line was Dessaix's quest for an understanding of the kind of love that meant so much to Turgenev. Dessaix seemed to imagine that the answer might emerge as a dimension of place, but he is constantly disappointed and finds nothing. Then, at the end of the book, he remembers that he had promised to find something and quickly tries to cover himself with a fairly banal set of distinctions between sex, love and time stopping passion. I say banal because for me his conclusion was neither profound nor particularly interesting. He didn't open any doors that would encourage me to want to read Turgenev. Quite the reverse. However, as I mentioned, it was an enjoyable amble without destination. In Twilight of Love Dessaix is a flâneur and I don't think he would mind me saying that.… (more)
Honest, titillating, stimulating and raw action from the beginning.
Intriguing being inside his mind and aware of his thoughts and feelings.
He gives a very descriptive comparison of religions with first hand experience.
Intriguing being inside his mind and aware of his thoughts and feelings.
He gives a very descriptive comparison of religions with first hand experience.
Robert Dessaix you have done it again! I love your writing style. I enjoy the tumble and jumble of your thoughts and I’m so glad two Good Samaritans were close by on that night of nights!
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Statistics
- Works
- 19
- Also by
- 5
- Members
- 1,281
- Popularity
- #20,021
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 22
- ISBNs
- 100
- Languages
- 8
- Favorited
- 4