Sea Shells [Hardcover]

Paul Valery (Author), Henri Mondor (Illustrator), Mary Oliver (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Something about seashells attracts poets: Pablo Neruda kept a collection of them, as did William Wordsworth, C.P. Cavafy, and Walt Whitman; all wrote about the wonders of malacology. The French symbolist poet Paul Valéry (1871-1945) joins their number with this short yet graceful essay on these "privileged objects" that "present us with a strange union of ideas: order and fantasy, invention and necessity, law and exception." At turns he likens the forms of poetry to those of shells and the shell itself to poor Yorick's skull, which set Hamlet to wondering about matters of life and death. The noted American poet Mary Oliver provides an introduction. Henri Mondor's pencil illustrations are an added pleasure. --Gregory McNamee

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press; First edition. edition (May 28, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807064300
• ISBN-13: 978-0807064306
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,409,492 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #57 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Animals > Seashells

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Applied Metaphysics, May 11, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Sea Shells (Hardcover)

In this essay by Valery, sea shells serve as a catalyst to introspection and investigation. Valery, through the inspection of sea shells, poses some of the most basic metaphysical questions, but in an original way. By asking these questions regarding a concrete object, Valery achieves an immediate profundity rarely reached in most philosophical treatises. And, of course, the writing is translucid and precise, furthering the case for Valery as the French Walter Pater.