In the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, Italian poetry experienced an extraordinary heyday. In ten chapters, the present volume provides exemplary insights into this period. English adaptations of selected poems are followed by literary-historical classifications and interpretations against the background of the life and work of the poets concerned.

Charles Baudelaire's poetic flower garden exudes many different fragrances. The most exquisite of them enable us to achieve what Baudelaire regarded as the most noble goal of his poetry: they allow us to "catch a glimpse of paradise". The present book offers an exemplary overview of Baudelaire's poetic flowers, combined with commentaries based on Baudelaire's own poetological and philosophical reflections.

Jacques Prévert is a poetic icon in France today, his poems are part of the school curriculum. Given the poet's deliberate distance from high culture and notably from traditional school education, this is not devoid of irony. The present eBook sketches a portrait of the poet in five chapters. In each chapter, English adaptations of selected works by Prévert serve as an introduction to individual aspects of his work.

Based on selected poems by Paul Verlaine, this booklet gives an overview of important aspects of the poet's life and work. Each chapter begins with an adaptation of a poem by Ilona Lay. On this basis, central elements of Verlaine's poetology and stages of his life reflected in his poetry are discussed.

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license.On April 22, 1915, the German military released 150 tons of chlorine gas at Ypres, Belgium. Carried by a long-awaited wind, the chlorine cloud passed within a few minutes through the British and French trenches, leaving behind at least 1,000 dead and 4,000 injured. This chemical attack, which amounted to the first use of a weapon of mass destruction, marks a turning point in world history. The preparation as well as the executio...

Silence is not simply the absence of noise. It is within us, in the inner citadel that great writers, thinkers, scholars and people of faith have cultivated over the centuries.It characterizes our most intimate and sacred spaces, from private bedrooms to grand cathedrals – those vast reservoirs of silence. Philosophers and novelists have long sought solitude and inspiration in mountains and forests. Yet despite the centrality of silence to some of our most intense experiences, the ...

The works of great artists are silent books of eternal truths. And thus it is indelibly written in the face of Balzac, as Rodin has graven it, that the beauty of the creative gesture is wild, unwilling and painful. He has shown that great creative gifts do not mean fullness and giving out of abundance. On the contrary the expression is that of one who seeks help and strives to emancipate himself. A child when afraid thrusts out his arms, and those that are falling hold out the hand to pass...

A classic account of late nineteenth-century Paris and a study of Baudelaire's life and workWalter Benjamin, one of the foremost cultural commentators and theorists of this century, is perhaps best known for his analyses of the work of art in the modern age and the philosophy of history.Yet it was through his study of the social and cultural history of the late nineteenth-century Paris, examined particularly in relation to the figure of the great Parisian l...

Alfred Jarry’s creation of the monster-tyrant Ubu was a watershed in theatre history: his play Ubu Roi (whose origins lie in his mercilessly ridiculed former schoolmaster) on the Paris stage in December 1896 brought him instant notoriety. This legendary event is set at the heart of Alfred Jarry, balanced with other achievements that this multi-talented and influential writer crammed into his short life, among them his self-invented science of pataphysics.The reade...

The first book to address everyone who relishes reading Proust and wants to know more about how his writing works.This is a matchless close reading of a literary masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time, and a lesson in how to read the Great Books profitably and pleasurably.‘Read this excellent book’ Stuart Jeffries, Guardian‘Very refreshing… a splendidly tough-minded and generous introduction’ Gabriel Josipovici, Independent‘Brilliant’ Peter Conrad, Observer...

Charles Baudelaire's place among the great poets of the Western world is undisputed, and his influence on the development of poetry since his lifetime has been enormous. In this Companion, essays by outstanding scholars illuminate Baudelaire's writing both for the lay reader and for specialists. In addition to a survey of his life and a study of his social context, the volume includes essays on his verse and prose, analyzing the extraordinary power and effectiveness of his language and sty...

At the age of fifty Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-98) spoke of his published work as ‘very precise reference points on my mind’s journey’. In Stéphane Mallarmé, Roger Pearson charts that journey for the first time, blending a biographical account of the poet's life with a detailed analysis of his evolving poetic theory and practice. ‘A poet on this earth must be uniquely a poet’, he declared at the age of twenty-two, and he duly lived a poet’s life. But what is a poet's life? What is a ...