Maldoror by Conte De Lautreamont

Maldoror by Conte De Lautreamont

The macabre but beautiful work, Les Chants de Maldoror, has achieved a considerable reputation as one of the earliest and most extraordinary examples of Surrealist writing. It is a long narrative prose poem which celebrates the principle of Evil in an elaborate style and with a passion akin to religious fanaticism. The French poet-critic Georges Hugnet has written of Lautréamont: "He terrifies, stupefies, strikes dumb. He could look squarely at that which others had merely given a passing glance." Little is known of the author of Maldoror, Isidore Ducasse, self-styled Comte de Lautréamont, except that he was born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1846 and died in Paris at the age of twenty-four. When first published in 1868-9, Maldoror went almost unnoticed. But in the nineties the book was rediscovered and hailed as a work of genius by such eminent writers as Huysmans, Léon Bloy, Maeterlinck, and Rémy de Gourmont. Later still, Lautréamont was to be canonized as one of their principal "ancestors" by the Paris Surrealists. This edition, translated by Guy Wernham, includes also a long introduction to a never-written, or now lost, volume of poetry. Thus, except for a few letters, it gives all the surviving literary work of Lautréamont.

"I like Lautreamont a lotHe taught me how important and how possible it was to write a sentence that is just gorgeous. Actually, I’m about overdue for a rereading of Maldoror I’d like to pick up a few tricks from that book again." -- William T. Vollmann - The Paris Review
"The expression of a revelation so complete it seems to exceed human potential." -- André Breton

Little is known of the author of Maldoror, Isidore Ducasse, self-styled Comte de Lautréamont, except that he was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1846 and died in Paris at the age of twenty-four. Guy Wernham, perhaps best known for his definitive translation of Maldoror, was associated with the Beat Poets.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780811200820
ISBN 10	0811200825
Title	Maldoror
Author	Conte De Lautreamont
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	New Directions Publishing Corporation
Year published	1965-02-01
Number of pages	342
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable