Autobiography of Red

by Anne Carson

In Anne Carson’s 1998 novel-in-verse, we meet Geryon – a winged red monster, wrestling with the aftermath of an unhappy and obsessive love affair. In a New York Times review on first publication, the poet Ruth Padel explains: “Anne Carson has created, from fragments of the Greek poet Stesichorus, a profound love story – a reverie on the mystery of one person’s power over another.” It is, she continues, “sensuous and funny, poignant, musical and tender, brilliantly lighted.” Autobiography of Red became something of a cult hit, its popularity only growing as the years went by. A follow-up, Red Doc>, was published in 2013.