La Jeune Parque (French-English Bilingual Edition)

Paul Valery; translated with introduction & notes by Alistair Elliot

ISBN 10: 1852243872 / ISBN 13: 9781852243876

Published by Newcastle upon Tyne, Great Britain: Bloodaxe Books Ltd, 1997

About this Item

Presumed first edition. "First published 1997" stated. No additional dates, editions or printings indicated. Fine if not new wraps/paperback. Virtually no signs of age/previous use. Seller Inventory # 101577

Bibliographic Details

Title: La Jeune Parque (French-English Bilingual ...

Publisher: Newcastle upon Tyne, Great Britain: Bloodaxe Books Ltd

Publication Date: 1997

Binding: Soft cover

Condition: Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

Paul Valery (1871-1945) was a poet and essayist, and along with Verlaine and Mallarme is regarded as one of the most important Symbolist writers, and an influence on poets from Eliot to Ashbery. He had a quiet life by many standards, but in one respect it was exemplary, even legendary; he made an early reputation in little magazines, decided to stop writing verse when still only 20, kept his silence for 20 years, then began again; and his first book of verse, published when he was 45, was his masterpiece La Jeune Parque.'A poem should not mean, but be,' said Archibald MacLeish. La Jeune Parque ('the goddess of Fate as a young woman') certainly exists: she's beautiful and makes great gestures. And as for what she means, there's a substantial amount of argument about that, so La Jeune Parque is a poem by either definition. It's a classic, by general agreement, written to the full 17th-century recipe for alexandrine couplets, and it's modern, with every word pulling its weight in more than one direction.Alistair Elliot's translation with notes is aimed at making this rewarding but difficult long poem accessible enough for bafflement to turn into admiration. He attempts to clarify its small puzzles and also trace the overall narrative line of Paul Valery's poem: it does have a story (what should a young woman do?) and does struggle towards a resolution. He also provides an introduction which deals with the interesting circumstances of the poem's four-year composition (1913-17), which resulted in Valery's instantly becoming a famous poet at the age of 45, after having written no poetry for 20 years.

Language Notes:

Text: English, French (translation)
Original Language: French