When Jules Laforgue's Moralit�s l�gendaires was published in 1887 a few months after his death at the age of twenty-seven, it was hailed as a masterpiece. In the words of Remy de Gourmont, it gave "the sensation (specially rare) that we have never read anything like it: the grape with all its velvet hues in the morning light, but with curious reflections and an air as if the seeds within had become frozen by a breath of ironic wind come from some place farther than the pole." Subsequent readers have agreed. The book, ...
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When Jules Laforgue's Moralit�s l�gendaires was published in 1887 a few months after his death at the age of twenty-seven, it was hailed as a masterpiece. In the words of Remy de Gourmont, it gave "the sensation (specially rare) that we have never read anything like it: the grape with all its velvet hues in the morning light, but with curious reflections and an air as if the seeds within had become frozen by a breath of ironic wind come from some place farther than the pole." Subsequent readers have agreed. The book, which parodies great figures of literature and legend, Hamlet, Lohengrin, and Salome, was an important influence on James Joyce and T. S. Eliot as well as on any number of French poets from Guillaume Apollinaire to Jacquest Pr�vert. In his introduction to this lively translation, William Jay Smith points out that Laforgue had hit upon a wholly modern approach: "The heroes of the past must be recreated by each human consciousness in its own way: they are perpetually waiting to be reborn." Their rebirth, in the wit and elegance of these finely wrought tales that Smith has carried over into English is a joy to contemplate.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. 1985. hardcover. From the library of Michel Déon. Signed by the translator with an inscription to Déon. Clean copy fine in clipped dust wrapper. DW showing minor shelf wear, remains a very good copy....Signed Copy. We ship daily from our Bookshop.
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Very good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
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8vo, pp. 160. A fine copy in dj. Signed by William Jay Smith. Jules Laforgue (French: 16 August 1860 – 20 August 1887) was an Franco-Uruguayan poet, often referred to as a Symbolist poet. Critics and commentators have also pointed to Impressionism as a direct influence and his poetry has been called "part-symbolist, part-impression. Influenced by Walt Whitman, Laforgue was one of the first French poets to write in free verse. Philosophically, he was an ardent disciple of Schopenhauer and Von Hartmann. His poetry would be one of the major influences on Ezra Pound and the young T. S. Eliot (cf. Prufrock and other observations. ) Louis Untermeyer wrote, [2] "Prufrock, published in 1917, was immediately hailed as a new manner in English literature and belittled as an echo of Laforgue and the French symbolists to whom Eliot was indebted."-Wikipedia.
