Mallorca Online Stories

DEIÀ AND THE GRAVES MYTH

The picturesque village of Deià, set deep in the Serra de Tramuntana, dominating the sea between Valldemossa and Sóller, is surely one of the places on the island which has hidden in itself the highest number of artistic myths. Many of them refer to ROBERT GRAVES (1895-1985). A review by Hartmut Ihnenfeldt.
Robert Graves, a descendant of the famous German historian Leopold von Ranke, had found "his paradise" in his house of Canelluñ (pseudo-Majorcan meaning "far away house"), built in 1932 on the northern outskirts of the village, along the path which leads to the cove. In 1929 he had run away from England with the American writer Laura Riding because of some problems of a private order and following the advice of the influential poetess and critic Gertrude Stein, settled in Majorca. Here, this creator, who conceived of himself as a poet, wrote his most important prosaic works, including his historical novels about Claudio, with the rights of which, he could live a tailor-made lifestyle in the still "very much cheap" Majorca of the past. There is no doubt that, Ava Gardner, the Hollywood star can be considered one of his most spectacular guests; in 1955 she visited Deià briefly, and after that she was considered a friend of the family. A few years later, Ava become famous in the village because she persuaded a young Civil Guard on duty and in uniform to dance with her, saying that it was "in Spains honour".
But Graves' powerful appeal also captured Alec Guinness, Peter Ustinov and young Gabriel García Márquez, all of whom made short visits to Deià. In March 1950, Canelluñ took in Stephen Hawking, who was only ten years old, his mother, and a friend from the University called Beryl, who became Graves second wife. He was later awarded the Nobel Prize, and remains in the memory of the Graves family thanks to his eccentric sense of humour. One day, to everyone's surprise, he threw a stink bomb under the sofa and the living room could not be inhabited for some time.
In her memoirs Ava My story, Ava Gardner (see photo) drew an extraordinarily positive biographical sketch of her admirer Robert, who dedicated some of his poems to her, which naturally filled the actress with enormous pride. One of these poems from 1964, the title of which is No way to sleep, describes the happily excited state which the presence of the beautiful Ava provoked in her host during her stays in Deià. "And I have to admit that I also loved him, although he was already more than sixty when I knew him. {However, there was no insinuation of carnal relations between them}. Being together with him, his marvelous wife Beryl and their children in his home on top of the mountains of Majorca, caused me such unbelievable pleasure and satisfaction that nothing in my life could be compared to it".
The English novelist Kingsley Amis (*1922) also dedicates some words of praise to the Graves family after his visit to Deià in 1960. "I have never again encountered a group of people so radically opposed to falseness, meanness or any expression of bad manners".
The English writer Allan Silitoe (*1928), Graves friend and protected disciple, visited the island in 1954 in answer to his mentor's invitation and lived in Sóller for a time during which Graves encouraged him to write his famous short stories Saturday Night, Sunday Morning and The Loneliness of the Long-distance Runner.
But Robert Graves did not only have admirers in Deià. One of his harshest critics was the English writer Anthony Burgess (1917-1993), known above all for the cinematographic version of his black humour classic A Clockwork Orange (1971). In the summer of 1969, Burgess and his family docked right in Deià, a village which, in the words of the writer "had little more to offer than Graves power of attraction... I didn't see him, nor was I interested in seeing him. I have never valued him highly as a poet, but Deià was full of Graves admirers."
Burgess probably did not know what he was looking for in that place. Once, dressed in a suit and tie, he gave a lecture about the "diligent citizen and honest man, William Shakespeare" in front of a group of American hippies. But "the meeting ended up in chaos and an attack on my suit". The last night before leaving for Barcelona, Burgess and his wife were attacked during a party by a group of American followers of voodoo cult, from whom Liane, Burgess' wife, had taken a doll with a number of needles stuck in it which was about to be thrown into the fire. Finally, they threw her down a cliff which was used as a rubbish pit and she broke a toe. Burgess relates all this with Robert Graves and the moon over Deià.
Graves' life and work in his adopted country can fill the whole of a book. In the amusing Mallorca Observed, he presents with subtle irony his particular vision about Majorcan life, hiding Deià behind the affectionate pseudonym of "Binijiny". He considered himself the "perfect guest" and the islanders respectfully called him "Mr. Roberto". He frequented the village café and went down to the cove everyday to have a bath in the Mediterranean until he had reached a more than respectful age. In the seventies he became a little bit strange because of his physical and mental decline and asserted that he could pass through closed doors and that he had seen UFOs landing in Deià. The simplicity of his grave in the small cemetery in the upper part of the village, just next to the Church, makes its location a little bit difficult to access. A discreet plaque reminds one of his name, and dates of birth and death with a simple word, "Poet".
People in the village were used to dealing with artists. Gustave Doré (1832-1883), the brilliant French engraver, illustrator of works of literature worldwide, was the first one who, in 1862, depicted the spectacular landscape of the Deià coast in a wood engraving (see reproduction). His companion in Voyage en Espagne, the Baron Ch. Davillier, describes Deià as "a lovely village surrounded by lemon trees." The Catalan writer and painter, Santiago Rusiñol (1861-1931), who wrote one of the most wonderful books about the island (The Island of Calm, 1922) and in which he portrays the conditions of life at that time with gentle irony, celebrated the spectacular sunsets of the Serra with his artist friends as if they were authentic theatre productions: with great applause storms ... and a certain village inhabitants embarrassment. However, as we know from the elucidating notes of the Scottish writer and Robert Graves former friend, Alastair Reid (who ran away with one of Graves' young "muses" he gave this name to the women friends who inspired his love poems-, and which he never forgave him for), the islanders marked out a fine, clear dividing line between that which was allowed and acceptable and that which "the mad foreigners" did.
It is safe to assume that among these we could also find the American feminist and authoress Anais Nin (1903-1977; see photo), well-known especially for her erotic tales and her collaboration together with Henry Miller. Nin lived during the summer of 1941 (when Graves was in the English "exile") in a house with a garden in the Clot, the lower part of the village, and every morning she got on a mule and went down to the cove. Later on, she wrote the story of a fisherman's daughter, María, and her first genuinely erotic experience with a young foreign couple in the cove. The Majorcan writer Carmen Riera (*1948), in 1980, followed Anais Nin's footsteps in Deià to discover the truth behind all the rumours. Her magic narration Report came about from this inquiry, which adds a tragic element to the erotic one, with the fact that, according to the writer's verifications, María and her friends had to run away from the disturbed inhabitants of the village, by entering the sea, from which only their corpses were recovered the next morning. But nobody in the village remembers it...

Photographs:
Photo 1,3: Family Graves
Photo 2: Hulton Deutsch Collection Ltd.
Photo 4,5,6: the author's archives


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