Description
Book SynopsisUpon his death in 1898, the French Symbolist poet Stephane Mallarmé (b. 1842) left behind a body of published work which though modest in quantity was to have a seminal influence on subsequent poetry and aesthetic theory. He also enjoyed an...
Trade ReviewAn extremely thoughtful and well-documented new study, a book that sheds as much light on the cultural dynamics of the fin-de-siecle as it does on the aesthetics, ethics, and personality of Mallarmé himself.... In the end, Lloyd skillfully demonstrates that Mallarmé's correspondence holds much hidden significance.
* French Forum *
Lloyd's richly insightful study focuses on the way Mallarmé's correspondence with his friends and acquaintances (his circle) sheds light on the process of poetic composition.... Lloyd's style is elegant rather than artful, and the erudition of the author, while understated, is apparent on every page.
* French Review *
The book places Mallarmé within the blazing late-19th-century Parisian artistic ferment and offers credible looks at the origins of his endlessly complicated and beautiful work.
* Publishers Weekly *
Rosemary Lloyd's book stands out among recent publications on Mallarmé for its readability and its intimate portrait of the poet in the context of his times.
* The European Legacy *
This articulate literary biography... sheds new and important light on Mallarmé's own poems and essays.... An important addition to large public as well as scholarly collections,... this volume will be a sine qua non for any library supporting serious study in poetry, art, and music of late 19th-century France. Endnotes, a substantial bibliography, a useful index, and excellent print, paper, and binding add to the book's value.
* Choice *
Throughout her book Lloyd segues gracefully from the poet's life and milieu to his poems, always matched with her first-rate translations and subtle explications. While insisting on the everyday simplicity of Mallarmé's symbols (mirrors, sunsets, vases) she never tries to explain away the poems' irreducible complexity. This is biographical criticism of the highest order; it is also an absorbing portrait of a dazzling subculture.
* Times Literary Supplement *
