Making of the "Pré"

by Francis Ponge, Lee Fahnestock (Translator)

1979, PP.223, Sm Quarto, Original Manuscript Annotated

Genres: Poetry

240 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 1982

About the author

Francis Jean Gaston Alfred Ponge was a French essayist and poet. Influenced by surrealism, he developed a form of prose poem, minutely examining everyday objects.

Reviews

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

in which Francis Ponge, being French, labors over the phenomenological atoms of rivers and plains, coming up with a meadow on which theoretical swords are crossed and yet one is felled in practice. Mr. Ponge, you killed me on the Pre, but this is a very interesting read. Bonus: lots of words vehemently crossed out.

[Don Socha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Pré is where it all starts. This is the idyllic moment as realized by Ponge. It is pastoral, botany, root, honey, sunshine spliced with shadow. Source of all possibilities. One might think, pre-identity, pre-knowledge, pre-affect. It answers Mallarmé regarding the blank page and offers recipes for meditation and for peace.

[Lytle]

He quoted to me Rimbaud: "the harpsichord of the pres." I immediately asked him to be quiet, but to copy out for me the sentence of my letter to him on that subject.