MALDOROR AND POEMS

One of the earliest and most astonishing examples of surrealist writingInsolent and defiant the Chants de Maldoror by the self-styled Comte de Lautréamont (1846-70) depicts a sinister and sadistic world of unrestrained savagery and brutality. One of the earliest and most astonishing examples of surrealist writing it follows the experiences of Maldoror a master of disguises pursued by the police as the incarnation of evil as he makes his way through a nightmarish realm of angels and gravediggers hermaphrodites and prostitutes lunatics and strange children. Delirious erotic blasphemous and grandiose by turns this hallucinatory novel captured the imagination of artists and writers as diverse as Modigliani Verlaine André Gide and André Breton; it was hailed by the twentieth-century Surrealist movement as a formative and revelatory masterpiece.For more than seventy years Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1700 titles Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.