Letters to Madeleine: Tender as Memory (The French List) - Hardcover

Apollinaire, Guillaume

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9781905422920: Letters to Madeleine: Tender as Memory (The French List)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 190542292X ISBN 13: 9781905422920

Publisher: Seagull Books, 2010

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Letters to Madeleine collects for the first time in English the remarkable letters and poems sent by French poet Guillaume Apollinaire to his fianc�e Madeleine Pag�s during World War I. Stationed in the trenches of Champagne, this man of letters who had been at the forefront of the surrealist movement was transformed overnight into an artilleryman.

The fascinating correspondence bears witness to the typical yet deeply idiosyncratic experience of Apollinaire at an especially crucial moment of his existence as man and artist. Apollinaire shares with Madeleine his thoughts on art and literature from Racine to Tolstoy, and at the same time he uniquely documents the daily life of a soldier at the front during the Great War. As well, the letters reveal intimate and little-known aspects of Apollinaire’s personality—from his childhood and tastes to his grandest aesthetic ideas.

Writing about the letters in his biography of Apollinaire, Francis Steegmuller noted, “Nowhere, is there a more ‘living picture’ of a poet in a war . . . or, outside of Stendhal, a more vivid picture of war itself.” Letters to Madeleine is a moving portrait of a poet facing one of humanity’s starkest realities, and it will be of interest to not only fans of Apollinaire but those interested in personal accounts of World War I as well.

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About the Author:

Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitzki, known by the pseudonym Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918), was among the foremost poets of the early twentieth century. Apollinaire’s works include The Decaying Enchanter, The Bestiary, The Spirits, and Caligrams. He is credited with coining the term surrealism. Donald Nicholson-Smith has translated many works from French.

Review:

“This is an extraordinary discovery. These letters and poems, not fully known even in French until 2005, are truly fascinating, from the description of trench life to the measurements of the engagement ring. The translations are magnificent and the editorial presentation is highly informative. I was delighted.”

(Mary Ann Caws, editor, Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry)

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