Landscape with Rowers: Poetry from the Netherlands

Coetzee, J. M.

ISBN 10: 0691123853 / ISBN 13: 9780691123851

Published by Princeton University Press, Princeton / Oxfordshire, 2005

About this Item

As good as new, paperback, 104 pp., 20.8x131 cm, translation Coetzee, J. M., ill. Co Westerik, ill. (pictures [colour]) Bilingual: Dutch / English, letterbox mail.

Seller Inventory # 56966

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Landscape with Rowers: Poetry from the Netherlands
• Publisher: Princeton University Press, Princeton / Oxfordshire
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691123853
• ISBN 13: 9780691123851
• Binding: Soft cover
• Illustrator: Co Westerik
• Condition: As New

About this title

Synopsis

Though the Netherlands has been the site of vigorous literary activity since at least the Beweging van Vijftig (Movement of the Fifties) poets, the status of Dutch as a "minor" language spoken by only twenty-two million people has kept its rich poetry more or less a secret. This volume--featuring J. M. Coetzee's finely wrought English translations side-by-side with the originals--brings the work of six of the most important modern and contemporary Dutch poets to light.


Ranging in style from the rhetorical to the intensely lyrical, the work here includes examples of myth-influenced modernist verse, nature poetry, experimental poetry, poems conscious of themselves within a pan-European avant-garde, and Cees Nooteboom's uncompromising reflections on the powers and limitations of art. In addition to Nooteboom, the poets represented are Gerrit Achterberg, Hugo Claus, Sybren Polet, Hans Faverey, and Rutger Kopland--a who's who of contemporary Dutch poetry.


In Youth, Coetzee's main character claims that "of all nations the Dutch are the dullest, the most antipoetic." With these marvelous translations, the author proves his protagonist wrong.

About the Author

J. M. Coetzee received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003. His books include The Lives of Animals (Princeton), In the Heart of the Country, Waiting for the Barbarians, and the Booker Prize-winning novels Life and Times of Michael K and Disgrace. His most recent book is the novel Elizabeth Costello (2003).