The Form of a City Changes Faster, Alas, than the Human Heart

Jacques Roubaud

ISBN 10: 1564783839 / ISBN 13: 9781564783837

Published by Dalkey Archive Press, US, 2006

About this Item

Composed of 150 poems, with a title taken from Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal, and partly a response to the poetry of Raymond Queneau, this collection explores Jacques Roubaud's many poetic modes. He skips from the strict form of the sonnet to the freedom of prose poetry without abandoning the melancholy playfulness that has defined his lengthy writing career.A selection of Roubaud's best recent work, The Form of a City describes not only Paris, but also its people, its writers (and those of the Oulipo in particular), its monumental past, and its unsteady response to change.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781564783837

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Form of a City Changes Faster, Alas, than the Human Heart
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press, US
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1564783839
• ISBN 13: 9781564783837
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Dimensions: 0.55W x 0.07H x 0.85D inches 0.55 inches width by 0.07 inches height by 0.85 inches depth

About this title

Synopsis

A sometimes mocking, sometimes poignant tribute to the City of Light.

An homage and response to many of France’s best-known poets, including Charles Baudelaire and Raymond Queneau, this collection moves through the streets of Paris, commenting on its inhabitants, its writers, its monumental past, and all its possible futures. Alternating between honesty and evasion, erudition and lightheartedness, constraint and freedom, The Form of a City Changes Faster, Alas, Than the Human Heart explores a Paris that’s no longer “the one we used to find.”

About the Authors

Jacques Roubaud, born in 1932, has been a professor of mathematics at the University of Paris X Nanterre. He is one of the most accomplished members of the Oulipo, the workshop for experimental literature founded by Raymond Queneau and Francois Le Lionnais. He is the author of numerous books of prose, theatre and poetry.

Keith Waldrop, Brooke Russell Astor Professor of Humanities at Brown University, has published more than a dozen works each of original poetry and translations. His first book, A Windmill Near Calvary, was shortlisted for the 1968 National Book Award. Other books include The Real Subject: Queries and Conjectures of Jacob Delafon, with Sample Poems, The House Seen from Nowhere, and a translation of The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire.

Rosmarie Waldrop was born in Germany and has lived in the United States since 1958. The author and translator of dozens of books of poetry, fiction, and criticism, she is the co-founder and co- publisher of Burning Deck Press. Waldrop’s many honors include being named a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, fellowships from the NEA, the Fund for Poetry, and the Lila Wallace–Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award. In 2006 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.