Stéphane Mallarmé

During his lifetime, Stéphanie Mallarmé (1842-1898) was recognized as one of the greatest modern French poets. He wrote extensively on themes of reality and his desire to turn away from it, marrying form and content in revolutionary ways that departed drastically from the more tightly controlled French tradition. Despite his status as one of the first modernists, much of Mallarmé's radicalism has been lost in translation. Finally, in this new collection by Blake Bronson-Bartlett and Robert Fernandez, the magic and mastery of form and diction so striking in Mallarmé's French verse comes to life in English. Drawing from Poésies (1899 edition), Un coup de dés (A cast of dice), and the "Livre" (the "Book" - the overarching conceptual work left unfinished at the death of the poet), this collection captures Mallarmé's true linguistic brilliance, bringing the poems into our current context, while retaining the music, playfulness, and power of the originals. -- from back cover.

"This volume contains never-before translated prose selections by the father of the Symbolist movement, one of the most influential cultural figures of 19th-century France. Mallarme's letters to leading French intellectuals and artists of the time appear with his pieces on language and aesthetics, as he considers the state of contemporary French literature. There are also lighter reflections on life, fashion, and the performing arts (some of Mallarme's fascinating essays on the ballet are included here). A number of sections are devoted to Mallarme's great magazine of wit and opinion, La Derniere Mode, or The Latest Fashion, every page of which he wrote himself under various pseudonyms of both genders. As the translator and editor of this volume Mary Ann Caws puts it: "It is Mallarme as inventor whom this volume celebrates." Mallarme's portraits of poets and artists (including Tennyson, Poe, and Manet) also contribute to this long-awaited volume, a collection of prose highlighting Mallarme's multiplicity of voices and variety of forms."--BOOK JACKET.

Stéphane Mallarmé was a radically innovative poet of the 19th century, in English as well as in French. This text contains his poetry and his Poesies in the last arrangement known to have been approved by the author and provides a wide-ranging survey of his work.