Never-before translated prose pieces by the father of the Symbolist movement and one of the most influential cultural figures of 19th-century France. This volume contains never-before translated prose selections--on language and aesthetics (grouped with a brief selection from his meditation The Book) as well as lighter reflections on life, fashion, and the performing arts. A number of sections are devoted to Mallarme's great magazine of wit and opinion (every page of which he wrote himself): Derniere Mode, or The Latest Fashion, which included commentary on clothing, education, and travel.These pieces were written under various pseudonyms of various genders: Madame du Ponty, Mademoiselle Satin, and "the redoubtable and unspecified IX." As the translator and editor of this volume Mary Ann Caws puts it: "It is Mallarme as inventor which this volume wants to celebrate, along with the rest of his genius." Mallarme's reflections on the English language, as well as his portraits of poets and artists (including Tennyson, Poe, and Manet) --and letters to such renowned figures as Valery, Debussy, and Paul Claudel--also contribute to making this an enticing volume, a collection of prose pieces highlighting the multiplicity of Mallarme's voices and the variety of his forms.
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From Publishers Weekly
While St‚phane Mallarm‚ wrote as much prose as poetry, little of that side of his writing has made its way into English. Caws (who also edited St‚phane Mallarm‚: Selected Poetry and Prose) and five other translators contribute letters, articles, vignettes, paeans to Poe and Tennyson, literary criticism, appreciations of ballet and miscellaneous, unclassifiable pieces to emphasize just how much more of Mallarm‚ there is to read. Of the writer's major works, Caws has chosen excerpts from Les Mots anglais, a work that reflects less Mallarm‚'s insights into English than his fascination with the mysteries of language itself. Although there is nothing to represent Mallarm‚'s study in mythology, Les Dieux antiques (1880), there are selections from one of his money-making ventures, his fashion magazine La DerniŠre Mode (1874), such as his disquisition on the metaphysics of the top hat. There are even a few fragmentary notes from his inscrutable, incomplete work Le Livre. Apart from the necessary ecstatic impenetrability of the Symbolists, Mallarm‚ often engages in jeux d'esprit here. "Wait, for modesty's sake," he playfully begs an interlocutor, "for me to make it a little more obscure." Although there's an element of a chocolate-box assortment to this sampling, with so little of Mallarm‚'s prose in translation, Caws's collection becomes the de facto best introduction.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Review
[O]ught to charm and perplex anyone with an appreciation for extreme erudition and mastery of language. -- Jason Chan, Willamette Week/Portland, 4 April 2001
[T]here are moments of sunlight, and gems worth highlighting and copying down elsewhere. -- Southbay's Weekly, Bondo Wyszpolski, 24 May 2001
[T]here are moments of sunlight, and gems worth highlighting and copying down elsewhere. -- Southbay's Weekly, Bondo Wyszpolski, 24 May 2001
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First Sentence:
Yes, my dear poet, to conceive of literature, and for it to have some reason for being, we have to reach this "high symphony" that perhaps no one will manage; but it has haunted even the most unthinking, and its principal aspects mark every written work, Read the first page Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Yes, my dear poet, to conceive of literature, and for it to have some reason for being, we have to reach this "high symphony" that perhaps no one will manage; but it has haunted even the most unthinking, and its principal aspects mark every written work, Read the first page Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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