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Loading... Paris Spleen (1869)by Charles Baudelaire
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. How did I not know about this book before? I loved it - think Alice and Wonderland without the wonder. Poe, reinvented as a modernist who writes exclusively about the Paris slums. I left a lot of bookmarks in this one. ( ) Who among us has not dreamt, in moments of ambition, of the miracle of a poetic prose, musical without rhythm and rhyme, supple and staccato enough to adapt to the lyrical stirrings of the soul, the undulations of dreams, and sudden leaps of consciousness. Contrary to popular belief, I had never read Baudelaire until now. I've trusted Walter Benjamin and lately Calasso to provide me with a well informed ethos about this central figure. There are many concerns that this is the literature of the young, to which I shout, absurd. This is the lettres of the Absolute, the eternally curious. Below the bile, there is a hum of sensitivity. Behind the debris are the tears of the sensitive. Is it forgiving, likely not? There is a buzzing pulse at play, a hum and a forgiving glance. Superb! Baudelaire's genius shines through in each and every one of these poems. What he was lacking in Les Fleurs du Mal, he recovers here. His growth and perspicuity is at such a pitch that one cannot help but feel as if you are along with him in the streets. The prose style of this poetry and allegorical imagery is reflective of Kafka yet underscored by Baudelaire's unique vitality which has always distinguished him as a poet in his day. Absolutely recommended! I enjoy Baudelaire most when he is at his snarkiest and/or most morbid. Thankfully in this collection of prose poems he often hovers in one or both of these states. I could've skipped some of the "love" poems, but whatever...even the most disconnected poet writes those from time to time. I rarely think about what it would be like to spend a day with a certain poet, but Baudelaire provokes that thought in me. However, he'd probably rather skulk around by himself than hang around another "damned bastard of a cloud-monger" like me. And I think that's just fine.
En dan ga je ze lezen, die kleine, geciseleerde verhaaltjes over 'De vreemdeling', 'De wanhoop van de oude vrouw', 'De belijdenis van de kunstenaar', 'De dubbele kamer' of, een heel mooie, 'De klok', dat begint met de zin 'Chinezen kunnen in de ogen van een kat zien hoe laat het is', en je belandt in een àndere wereld, tussen en in het gewoel van het moderne, grootsteedse, negentiende-eeuwse Parijs met zijn herrie, zijn massa's, zijn drugs en andere genotmiddelen, en je bent tegelijkertijd wèg uit het zinderend hete Amsterdam anno 1995 en er ook in terug, want o, wat heeft Baudelaire in deze schetsen het innerlijk van een grotestadsbewoner, hunkerend naar schoonheid, en meegesleurd met het vuil dat zich aan de trottoirranden en in metrostations ophoopt, prachtig, prachtig verbeeld. Belongs to Publisher SeriesIs contained inHas as a student's study guideAwardsNotable Lists
Set in a modern, urban Paris, the prose pieces in this volume constitute a further exploration of the terrain Baudelaire had covered in his verse masterpiece, The Flowers of Evil- the city and its squalor and inequalities, the pressures of time and mortality, and the liberation provided by the sensual delights of intoxication, art and women. Published posthumously in 1869, Paris Spleen was a landmark publication in the development of the genre of prose poetry - a format which Baudelaire saw as particularly suited for expressing the feelings of uncertainty, flux and freedom of his age - and one of the founding texts of literary modernism. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)841.8Literature French French poetry Later 19th century, 1848–1900LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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