Declare Books Conducive To Illuminations
| Original Title: | Illuminations |
| ISBN: | 0811201848 (ISBN13: 9780811201841) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Arthur Rimbaud
Paperback | Pages: 182 pages Rating: 4.37 | 10154 Users | 305 Reviews
Relation As Books Illuminations
The prose poems of the great French Symbolist, Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891), have acquired enormous prestige among readers everywhere and have been a revolutionary influence on poetry in the twentieth century. They are offered here both in their original texts and in superb English translations by Louise Varèse. Mrs. Varèse first published her versions of Rimbaud’s Illuminations in 1946. Since then she has revised her work and has included two poems which in the interim have been reclassified as part of Illuminations. This edition also contains two other series of prose poems, which include two poems only recently discovered in France, together with an introduction in which Miss Varèse discusses the complicated ins and outs of Rimbaldien scholarship and the special qualities of Rimbaud’s writing. Rimbaud was indeed the most astonishing of French geniuses. Fired in childhood with an ambition to write, he gave up poetry before he was twenty-one. Yet he had already produced some of the finest examples of French verse. He is best known for A Season in Hell, but his other prose poems are no less remarkable. While he was working on them he spoke of his interest in hallucinations––"des vertiges, des silences, des nuits." These perceptions were caught by the poet in a beam of pellucid, and strangely active language which still lights up––now here, now there––unexplored aspects of experience and thought.
Itemize Appertaining To Books Illuminations
| Title | : | Illuminations |
| Author | : | Arthur Rimbaud |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 182 pages |
| Published | : | January 17th 1957 by New Directions (first published 1875) |
| Categories | : | Poetry. Cultural. France. Classics. European Literature. French Literature. Literature. 19th Century |
Rating Appertaining To Books Illuminations
Ratings: 4.37 From 10154 Users | 305 ReviewsEvaluation Appertaining To Books Illuminations
Illuminations remains one of the most compelling, influential and groundbreaking works of literature I've ever encountered. And yes, I am also staggered that this was written by somebody so young.Concise and expansive, fluid and intricate, imaginative and original, immense, kaleidoscopic, soaring into heights that not many others are able to reach. What more can one add that hasn't been said already? This really is the real deal. Bravo!I can't stop reading books alongside Infinite Jest.Today I checked out Ashbery's new translation of Illuminations from the library and read it in one sitting in my kitchen. I'm glad I did it. It's a beautiful book. I don't know much French, but I will fight anyone who says this is not a good translation.Really, we should all be singing these poems to each other. We should've fought for the last copies in bookstores and read them all the first night they were published. If we care about poetry
Frankly, I do not know why I still bother with poetry. It is not, and apparently never will be a favourable genre of mine. Unjust rating, perhaps; but this very much resembles plain text to me.
'Ô journées enfantes! Le corps un trésor à prodiguer.' -Saint Arthur, 'Jeunesse'Haven't peeked the Ashbery translation yet. Hopefully such an act will be pursued before the desolation of this idyll comedy I call 'life.'---First read: Summer 2015Re-read: 12 Jan 2017Re-re-read: eternity
I first encountered Rimbaud in the context many do- the context of the wild seedy world that late 19th century French proto-surrealists conjured in the minds of their readers. Rimbaud is perhaps best remembered for the reeling screeching insanity of his most famous works (such as that found in The Drunken Boat and A Season In Hell), but I honestly think that much as he's one of the most beloved and influential poets of his era, he's never been given the credit he truly deserves.John Ashbery
A series of hallucinatory prose poems full of surreal images and turns of phrase. In arresting detail the work lends voice to the poets fantasies and nightmares, violently cycling between self loathing and grandeur, euphoria and despair. So often the works opaque and lines lend themselves to multiple readings, inviting rereading.
I doubt my own worthiness to review such sublime material. Although I usually avoid deifying literature, what Rimbaud does here is not the stuff of mortals. He truly is the only one capable of the savage slideshow he presents here as illuminations. Sheer brilliance, this. It's such a shame that I do not have a working knowledge of French to read the original but Ashberry seems to have done as stellar job with the translation. Recommended reading for anyone and everyone who chooses to rise above
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