The Penguin Book of French Poetry: 1820-1950

by William Rees

This collection illuminates the uniquely fascinating era between 1820 and 1950 in French poetry - a time in which diverse aesthetic ideas conflicted and converged as poetic forms evolved at an astonishing pace. It includes generous selections from all the established giants - among them Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud and Breton - as well as works from a wide variety of less well-known poets such as Claudel and Cendrars, whose innovations proved vital to the progress of poetry in France. The significant literary schools of the time are also represented in sections focusing on such movements as Romanticism, Symbolism, Cubism and Surrealism. Eloquent and inspirational, this rich and exhilarating anthology reveals an era of exceptional vitality.

Genres: Poetry, France, Classics, Literature, French Literature, Anthologies, Fiction

1036 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 2, 1991

Reviews

[Eadweard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to a friend for this wonderful gift.


Poets I had not read before and who I thoroughly enjoyed:

Leconte De Lisle
Jose-Maria De Heredia
Charles Cros
Tristan Corbiere
Jules Laforgue
Emile Verhaeren
Maurice Maeterlinck
Oscar Vladislav De Lubicz Milocz
Victor Segalen
Max Jacob
Blaise Cendrars
Philippe Soupault
Francis Ponge

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sacre Bleu ! The selection of poets and poetry is first class but I really can't recommend the Kindle version of this work. The translations are blocks of text whilst the French is in it's traditional layout, and sometimes the English text turns back to French with no spacing.
So mes enfants, if you try to mentally translate from the original whilst checking your progress against the translation you've had your pommes frites.

[Takipsilim · Rating 5 out of 5]

The beginning of my love affair with all things French and literary. One of my greatest influences.

[John Berner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got through Rimbaud so I'm shelving this for now, but I'm nowhere near done and will return later when I get an appetite for it back.

As an anthology this edition is generally fine? The translations are aids to the originals, as opposed to Proper Translations, which works for my rough level of French.

However: maybe this is just a product of the movements/poets themselves, but the primers for Parnassianism/Symbolism etc. just read like a bunch of Literary Gibberish to me. Haven't retained too much there, but a lot of the individual poems are fascinating, as you might expect.

[Leandro Apostol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ce recueil est vraiment fascinant et regorge de poèmes dont je suis pas au courant. Certains m'ont fait pleurer, certains m'ont fait frémir en dégoût, et des autres m'ont émerveillé. Mais pourtant, ce n'est pas l'un des livres dont je lirais d'une traite. Bien sélectionné, allant du romantisme à les poèsies d'après-guerre. Il y en a plein de trésors à picorer et à revisiter encore et encore, tout ce qui me suis rendu plus intèressès à apprendre plus loin.

[Lemotjuste · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very useful, literal prose translations. Brief (perhaps too brief) overview of each poet & movement. Efficiently teaches the meter of classical French poetry. Great selection. Includes poets I’ve never heard of along with poets that are difficult to find like Corbière. Generous selection of the greats (Baudelaire, Rimbaud, etc.) too. Even an Apollinaire calligram is in it.

[Chris Fordham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some interesting verse. As it's arranged chronologically it's great to see how the trends of structure and strictness to form vary over time. Sadly though I read it on Kindle and the formatting was terrible, but was worth battling through this obstacle.

[Kevin Hinman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Penguin anthology is an incredible resource - especially to newcomers. You’re not going to love every poem (or poet or movement) in this book, but there is no way you will not love at least some of it. I’m partial to the cubists myself, and Breton.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read an earlier edition than the one shown here.

[Michael I]

Baudelaire and Rimbaud both deserve further attention.

[Maggie Gravelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly well organized, as can be expected from any Penguin Classics poetry collection.

[tumulus · Rating 3 out of 5]

The selection itself is serviceable (some odd additions and exclusions aside) with a well-thought-out collection of poems furnished by Rees' encyclopedia knowledge on the myriad French literary movements that characterised these 80 or so years. However, the book suffers from the mediocrity of the poetic commentary, comprised mostly of haphazardly assembled, irrelevant biographical detail where more specific technical analysis would have been welcome - and infinitely more interesting.

[Peter Crofts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Non obtrusive prose translations and a fantastic selection. If you need a starting point for modern French poetry this is the place to go. Not only do you have a good selection from all of the most known poets but also a gateway into lesser known but very good poetry. Without this volume I would never have stumbled onto Segalen's Steles or encountered Rene Char...what a shame that would have been. Some people seem to have a problem with the literalness of the translations. I'm of the mindset that the less obtrusive the translation the better. There are very few Pounds out there who can carry out creative translation without doing serious damage to the original. I recently bought a volume of Jules Laforgue's work translated by Peter Dale. Nothing against the guy but he completely warped some of the poems in order to maintain metre and rhyme. If you have no French then pick up or download a French-English dictionary, refer to it when you find the choice of English flat and you'll be fine. In addition, a lot of the more famous poems can be found being read on Youtube, that's a great way to get the music if you can't read the French originals.

[Alexandra Kulik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rappelle-toi, quand sous la froide terre
Mon coeur brisé pour toujours dormira;
Rappelle-toi, quand la fleur solitaire
Sur mon tombeau doucement s'ouvrira.
Je ne te verrai plus; mais mon âme immortelle
Reviendra près de toi comme une sœur fidèle.
Écoute, dans la nuit,
Une voix qui gémit --
Rappelle-toi.

[c(g) starling · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book has it all. well, not all of it--but what it does have is the best of the best. no apologies, just great french poetry.

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent choices. The translations are what they say they are: prose. But they are solid, accurate and tasteful.

[James Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent collection of great breadth. Many great and not so great poems from the nnineteenth and twentieth centuries provide an overview of the French poetry tradition.

[emily dunsby · Rating 3 out of 5]

the translations take a Lot of liberties and the meaning gets a lil lost sometimes but it’s laid out nicely so. u win some u lose some.

[Maia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not pleased with the translations, but the poems themselves are fantastic.

[Laura]

not the best translation, at least not for speakers of American English. but overall a great collection.

[Mills College Library]

841.00809 F875 1990