Divagations

<p>This is a book just the way I don't like them the father of French Symbolism Stéphane Mallarmé informs the reader in his preface to <i>Divagations</i>: scattered and with no architecture. On the heels of this caveat Mallarmé's diverting discursive and gorgeously disordered 1897 masterpiece tumbles forth--and proves itself to be just the sort of book his readers like most. <p/>The salmagundi of prose poems prose-poetic musings criticism and reflections that is <i>Divagations</i> has long been considered a treasure trove by students of aesthetics and modern poetry. If Mallarmé captured the tone and very feel of fin-de-siècle Paris he went on to captivate the minds of the greatest writers of the twentieth century--from Valéry and Eliot to Paul de Man and Jacques Derrida. This was the only book of prose he published in his lifetime and in a new translation by Barbara Johnson is now available for the first time in English as Mallarmé arranged it. The result is an entrancing work through which a notoriously difficult-to-translate voice shines in all of its languor and musicality. <p/>Whether contemplating the poetry of Tennyson the possibilities of language a masturbating priest or the transporting power of dance Mallarmé remains a fascinating companion--charming opinionated and pedantic by turns. As an expression of the Symbolist movement and as a contribution to literary studies <i>Divagations</i> is vitally important. But it is also in Johnson's masterful translation endlessly mesmerizing.</p>