Complete Poetry and Prose: A Bilingual Edition (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe) [Paperback]

Louise Labe (Author), Deborah Lesko Baker (Translator), Annie Finch (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0226467155 | ISBN-13: 978-0226467153 | Publication Date: May 15, 2006 | Edition: Bilingual edition

Thanks to her acclaimed volume of poetry and prose published in France in 1555, Louise Labé (1522-66) remains one of the most important and influential women writers of the Continental Renaissance. Best known for her exquisite collection of love sonnets, Labé played off the Petrarchan male tradition with wit and irony, and her elegies respond with lyric skill to predecessors such as Sappho and Ovid. The first complete bilingual edition of this singular and broad-ranging female author, Complete Poetry and Prose also features the only translations of Labé's sonnets to follow the exacting rhyme patterns of the originals and the first rhymed translation of Labé's elegies in their entirety.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Deborah Lesko Baker is associate professor and chair of French at Georgetown University. Annie Finch is the director of the Stonecoast Low-Residency Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program at the University of Southern Maine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; Bilingual edition edition (May 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226467155
• ISBN-13: 978-0226467153
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #702,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A moving saga, poignant yet explosive !, May 14, 2007

By 

Carol Tanjutco (NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Complete Poetry and Prose: A Bilingual Edition (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe) (Paperback)

My mentor Lee Slonimsky (of Pythagoras In Love) highly recommended this
author because of the similarity in the tone of our "walking poems".
The prose and poetry by Louise Labe, with excellent translation by Annie Finch, depicts a poignant tale of love and passion that transcends death.
The markings in her tombstone brought me tears, while her sizzling passionate poem (of kisses) mirrors my own romantic expressions in poetry.
Simply loved it! Kudos to Annie Finch for capturing such fine moments of a French lover, in English.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable for the French Lit enthusiast, March 20, 2007

By 

Sherringford Clark (Mayor's Income, Tennessee) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Poetry and Prose: A Bilingual Edition (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe) (Paperback)

This is an excellent edition of the complete works of Louise Labe, who is one of the most important women writers of the French Renaissance and whose poetry is especially wonderful, providing a much-needed female perspective on the love lyric. One mustn't ignore Labe's prose however, for her "Debate of Folly and Love" is an excellent addition to the literary tradition of the debate and showcases Labe's proto-feminism.


Deborah Lesko Baker provides excellent introductions to Labe's poetry and prose, describing her life and times and her relation to other Renaissance writers (esp. Christine de Pisan). Baker illuminates Labe's role as a distinctively female writer and how her sonnets respond to those of Petrarch. Essentially, then, Baker provides all the background necessary for a full understanding of Labe, and she also supplies copious and helpful footnotes to Labe's works.

In addition, Annie Finch's translations of Labe's poetry are superb, capturing the spirit of the originals (of course, the french is on the facing page). All in all, this is an essential purchase for anyone interested in Labe or French Renaissance literature, being the only complete bilingual edition of Labe's works available and a model for all scholarly editions of its kind.