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Moral Tales
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Moral Tales Hardcover - 1985

by Laforgue, Jules


From the publisher

When Jules Laforgue's Moralits lgendaires was published in 1887 a few months after his death at the age of twenty-seven, it was hailed as a masterpiece. In the words of Remy de Gourmont, it gave "the sensation (specially rare) that we have never read anything like it: the grape with all its velvet hues in the morning light, but with curious reflections and an air as if the seeds within had become frozen by a breath of ironic wind come from some place farther than the pole." Subsequent readers have agreed. The book, which parodies great figures of literature and legend, Hamlet, Lohengrin, and Salome, was an important influence on James Joyce and T. S. Eliot as well as on any number of French poets from Guillaume Apollinaire to Jacquest Prvert. In his introduction to this lively translation, William Jay Smith points out that Laforgue had hit upon a wholly modern approach: "The heroes of the past must be recreated by each human consciousness in its own way: they are perpetually waiting to be reborn." Their rebirth, in the wit and elegance of these finely wrought tales that Smith has carried over into English is a joy to contemplate.

Details

  • Title Moral Tales
  • Author Laforgue, Jules
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition First Edition
  • Publisher New Directions, NY
  • Date 1985-07
  • ISBN 9780811209427
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Moral Tales
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Moral Tales

by Laforgue, Jules

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  • Hardcover
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Hardcover
ISBN 13
9780811209427
ISBN 10
0811209423
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New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1985. Hardcover. Good. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
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Moral Tales
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Moral Tales

by LAFORGUE, JULES

  • Used
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Used
Edition
First edition thus, First printing
ISBN 13
9780811209427
ISBN 10
0811209423
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New York: New Directions, 1975. First edition thus, First printing. Hard Cover. FINE IN NEAR-FINE DUST JACKET WITH $17.95 PRICE AND SLIGHT DARKENING. OWNER NAME. Translated with an introduction by Wiliam J. Smith.
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MORAL TALES; Translated with an intrduction by William Jay Smith
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

MORAL TALES; Translated with an intrduction by William Jay Smith

by LAFORGUE, Jules

  • Used
  • Signed
  • first
Condition
Used
Edition
First Edition
ISBN 13
9780811209427
ISBN 10
0811209423
Quantity Available
4
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Lanesborough, Massachusetts, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£32.52
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New Directions, 1985. First Edition. 8vo, pp. 160. A fine copy in dj. Signed by William Jay Smith. Jules Laforgue (French: 16 August 1860 - 20 August 1887) was an Franco-Uruguayan poet, often referred to as a Symbolist poet. Critics and commentators have also pointed to Impressionism as a direct influence and his poetry has been called "part-symbolist, part-impression. Influenced by Walt Whitman, Laforgue was one of the first French poets to write in free verse. Philosophically, he was an ardent disciple of Schopenhauer and Von Hartmann. His poetry would be one of the major influences on Ezra Pound and the young T. S. Eliot (cf. Prufrock and other observations.) Louis Untermeyer wrote,[2] "Prufrock, published in 1917, was immediately hailed as a new manner in English literature and belittled as an echo of Laforgue and the French symbolists to whom Eliot was indebted."- Wikipedia.
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£32.52
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