Ombres Et Soleil / Shadows and Sun: Selected Writings of 1913-1952 [Hardcover]

Paul Eluard (Author), Lloyd Alexander (Author), Cicely Buckley (Author), Andre Lhote (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The seamless, accurate translations that distinguish this bilingual selection of the work of Eluard (1895-1952) are facilitated by Alexander's having worked closely with the poet on many of the pieces. The poems, chosen from over two dozen books and some translated here into English for the first time, are arranged in chronological sections. Eluard's work during the years of WWII makes up a quarter of the volume (and includes a clean rendition into English of ``Liberte,'' which RAF pilots dropped by the thousands over France during the resistance). The longest and most varied section, ``Between the World Wars,'' entails Eluard's dadaist and surrealist periods (the latter which he helped invent); in the post-war poetry, alexandrines and ballads replace the collage of earlier years. Six tantalizing prose pieces comprise the final section--from the Surrealists' Declaration of 1925, to an essay illuminating the idea of ``committed poetry.'' Overall this is an excellent compilation of the life work of a poet who accorded love and beauty primary status in his search for a language to capture this century's shattering changes.

Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Eluard (1895-1952) was perhaps one of the most complex creative artists among the generation of poets who lived through this century's two world wars. His alliances, whether political (communism, French Resistance), artistic (surrealism), or sentimental (Gala, Nush, Jacqueline, Dominique), provided him with a vibrant repertoire of themes and rhythms in which are mingled social and humanistic reflections (based on unanimism), narcissistic musings, and a celebration of love where burning sensuality alternates with amorous mysticism. This small selection of writings by Eluard are offered on the centennial of his birth. If viewed as a keepsake, the book's scope and illustrations are easily understood. The choice of a bilingual format is particularly judicious here, since it illustrates on every page an additional attribute of the poet's craft (and his translation's greatest challenge): his skillful weaving of rich metaphors within a deceptively simple language.?Danielle Mihram, Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 348 pages
• Publisher: Oyster River Pr (April 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0961748176
• ISBN-13: 978-0961748173
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,021,345 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars committed poetry, lyrical, engagee, best beloved European po, August 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ombres Et Soleil / Shadows and Sun: Selected Writings of 1913-1952 (Hardcover)

Seamless accurate translations span Eluard's poems of 1913-1953 including Liberte, dropped by RAF in WWII. 6 tantalizing prose pieces: Surrealist declaration of 1925, 2 essays on friend Picasso, on the idea of committed poetry. Publishers Weekly wrote "excellent compilation of the life work of a poet of love and beauty in a search for a language to counter the devastation of wars and super patriotism." Leon-Gabriel Gros wrote: It was a question of transforming life.... a direct method.... penetrating the deep reality...poetic morality.... a sort of virus...delivering the 'low-living' from their torpor. Finding the fire still burning under the ashes of the stillness in our hearts and brains from the "indifference" of the 1990's, Eluard's poems are a call to life and love of the best kind: they impell us to gently open up ouf "child's heart" and bring our "dreams into reality," to find in togetherness the ultimate reason of our being.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Prose from radio address & speeches help understand his moti, September 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ombres Et Soleil / Shadows and Sun: Selected Writings of 1913-1952 (Hardcover)

I am intrigued by the speeches given during the resistance of WWII, after the first war, at the first surrealist exposition in London, and the 2nd surrealist manifesto of 1924 by angry young men who had seen too much suffering in the war and were looking for a "new language", a new consciousness to overcome the errors of romanticism and super rationalism that resulted in supernationalism and megalomania.

Eluard was a modest human being, in love with life, and love, and Gala, and primitive art. Read Premierement /First of All, admonishing Gala for keeping her "brain in its attic" and forgetting her commitment to her first love, or "She is standing on my eyelids"; or on justice, "Bonne Justice/Good Justice" and "Minuit", on a poor resistance fighter condemned to be shot; or on learning to see with Picasso in two essays and poems from the book "Donner a Voir."

The Historical introduction, Chronological Contents, definitions of surrealism, and bibliography make good reading in themselves. The translations are "seamless", straight forward, do not betray the poet, so provide a fine way to approach the originals on opposite pages.

Pablo Neruda was his good friend, and must have read Eluard long before he wrote "Walking Around."

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars lyric and committed poems by a prime mover of Surrealists' s, August 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ombres Et Soleil / Shadows and Sun: Selected Writings of 1913-1952 (Hardcover)

Paul Eluard was the best beloved European poet of the first half of our century, which William Golding has called the most violent in human history. While illusions were destroyed, this writer wrote love poems, for which he is best known; as medic and infantryman in both world wars, wrote about (while Picasso painted) the devastating bombing of Guernica on market day in broad daylight, during the Spanish Civil War, and the German occupation of France, while he searched for a release from sentimental romanticism and "superpatriotism" held responsible by the Surrealists for the wars, as they recognized the importance of the subconscious and "desire", to find a new language that would help to achieve justice with mercy and release men from the constraints of false values. A historical introduction records this collaboration between writers and painters, who illustrated Eluard's books, with 6 here by Picasso, Chagall, Andre Lhote and Magritte. 6 intriguing prose pieces concern the idea of committed poetry (engagee), Picasso's role in teaching others to see, and the Surrealist Declaration of 1925. Neruda and many others followed the search of this seminal poet. A fine compilation of the poet's life work, with French and accurate, seamless English translations on opposite pages.