The poems in Rythmes pittoresques, first published in 1890, present not only a poet searching for a voice, but also a female poet searching for a voice while breaking down rules of both versification and gender-determined source of expression. They went straight to the heart of the male-dominated poetry of the time and effectively threatened its existence. Of the group of poets who were the first to write free-verse poetry in French - Marie Krysinska, Arthur Rimbaud, Jules Laforgue, Gustave Kahn - only Marie Krysinska (1857-1908) has not received critical recognition. Although it was quickly...

Jean Paulhan's Lettre aux directeurs de la Resistance was an important and contentious statement about the influence of communism in intellectual and literary circles. On publication in 1952, the pamphlet revived debates over collaboration with the Nazi authorities that had dominated French society since the Liberation, and that still have important echoes today. In this new edition, John Flower provides a full contextualising introduction. He also examines Paulhan's evolution during the period and assesses his postion alongside that of other key figures: in particular Mauriac and Camus. The...

Gregoire Le Roy was at school in Ghent with Maeterlinck and Van Leberghe, and grew up in the same atmosphere of intellectual ferment. His first collection of published verse just pre-dates Maeterlinck's Serres chaudes. His fin-de-siecle poetry was highly considered at the time of its first appearance, and was widely published in reviews. He treats all the major themes of the period, with special emphasis on a melancholy tone, half-tint landscapes, overt musicality, and (almost obsessively) the destructive nature of time. This is the first edition since their original publication in 1889 and...