New Impressions of Africa by Raymond Roussel (English) Paperback Book

Description: New Impressions of Africa by Raymond Roussel, Mark Ford This bilingual edition of New Impressions of Africa presents the original French text and the English poet Mark Fords lucid, idiomatic translation on facing pages. It also includes an introduction outlining the poems peculiar structure and evolution. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description Poet, novelist, playwright, and chess enthusiast, Raymond Roussel (1877-1933) was one of the French belle poques most compelling literary figures. During his lifetime, Roussels work was vociferously championed by the surrealists, but never achieved the widespread acclaim for which he yearned. New Impressions of Africa is undoubtedly Roussels most extraordinary work. Since its publication in 1932, this weird and wonderful poem has slowly gained cult status, and its admirers have included Salvador Dali--who dubbed it the most "ungraspably poetic" work of the era--Andr Breton, Jean Cocteau, Marcel Duchamp, Michel Foucault, Kenneth Koch, and John Ashbery. Roussel began writing New Impressions of Africa in 1915 while serving in the French Army during the First World War and it took him seventeen years to complete. "It is hard to believe the immense amount of time composition of this kind of verse requires," he later commented. Mysterious, unnerving, hilarious, haunting, both rigorously logical and dizzyingly sublime, it is truly one of the hidden masterpieces of twentieth-century modernism.This bilingual edition of New Impressions of Africa presents the original French text and the English poet Mark Fords lucid, idiomatic translation on facing pages. It also includes an introduction outlining the poems peculiar structure and evolution, notes explaining its literary and historical references, and the fifty-nine illustrations anonymously commissioned by Roussel, via a detective agency, from Henri-A. Zo. Back Cover "That anyone could translate Nouvelles Impressions dAfrique at all is unlikely, but that it could be done with such sparkle and brio seems downright mysterious. This version rescues Roussels bizarre masterpiece from its status as an intriguing rumor and turns it into a valuable resource for contemporary English-speaking readers. Poets especially will be in Mark Fords debt." --John Ashbery "Raymond Roussels New Impressions of Africa is one of the strangest, densest, maddest, most hauntingly beautiful poems of the twentieth century. In a signal act of scholarship and linguistic finesse, the poet and critic Mark Ford--who also happens to be one of the worlds prime Roussel scholars--has carried this extraordinary work across the border from French into English with exemplary skill and care. I should warn you that the book you are holding in your hands is mind-bending." --Nicholas Jenkins, Stanford University Author Biography Mark Ford teaches in the English Department at University College London. He is the author of Raymond Roussel and the Republic of Dreams. He has also published two volumes of essays, A Driftwood Altar and Mr and Mrs Stevens and Other Essays. He is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books and the New York Review of Books. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Canto I: Damiette: La maison ou Saint Louis fut prisonnier / Damietta: The house where Saint Louis was held prisoner 18 Canto II: Le Champ de bataille des Pyramides / The Battlefield of the Pyramids 62 Canto III: La Colonne qui, lechee jusqua ce que la langue saigne, guerit la jaunisse / The column that, when licked until the tongue bleeds, cures jaundice 178 Canto IV: Les Jardins de Rosette vus dune dahabieh / The Gardens of Rosetta seen from a dahabieh 210 Review Runner-Up for the 2012 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation, PEN American Center "Ford ... deserves a medal and a Legion dhonneur... Ford, himself a poet, combines his translation, introduction and notes with the original French and all the original illustrations; he and his publisher have given English-speaking readers privileged access to New Impressions of Africa, the book which Salvador Dal? once described as ungraspably poetic"--Peter Read, Times Literary Supplement "Mark Fords facing-pages edition is easily the most comprehensive and reader-friendly to date. The author of the definitive biography of Roussel in English, Ford brings lucidity to his translation of what is by far Roussels most ambitious work and probably his masterpiece."--Paul Grimstad, London Review of Books "In his excellent introduction, Ford quotes Leiriss description of New Impressions of Africa as, among other things, a massive brain teaser, and many of its riddles are as humorous as they are tricky... Intelligent, irascibly intelligible, and definitive."--Eric Banks, BookForum "In this poem, every road diverges into a woods. Its a chance to take them all."--Tyler Meier, Kenyon Review Newsletter "Ford has not just translated but has also deciphered the New Impressions of Africa. In his own words, the poem is nothing less than a brain-teaser. His translation is, as he concedes, less concise than the original, but not by much, and perhaps inevitably so. Roussel is so precise and sharp that his words seem almost psychically ergonomic. What Ford does brightly is recreate Roussels cleverness and wit. In short, Ford has successfully translated what is nothing less than a sort of charming anomaly of modern literature. Rather than distracting from his work, the explanatory notes encourage the reader to appreciate Roussel. This generous clothbound, bilingual edition, which includes the original illustrations that Roussel commissioned, would even have pleased the author himself."--William Heyward, Australian Book Review Prizes Short-listed for PEN Award for Poetry in Translation 2012 Review Quote Runner-Up for the 2012 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation, PEN American Center Details ISBN0691156034 Author Mark Ford Pages 264 Series Facing Pages Year 2012 Translator Mark Ford ISBN-10 0691156034 ISBN-13 9780691156033 Format Paperback Imprint Princeton University Press Place of Publication New Jersey Country of Publication United States Illustrations 59 halftones. Birth 1877 Death 1933 Publisher Princeton University Press Language English Media Book Short Title FRE/ENG-NEW IMPRESSIONS OF AFR Illustrator Henri-A Zo DEWEY 841.912 Translated from English UK Release Date 2012-10-28 Publication Date 2012-10-28 NZ Release Date 2012-10-28 US Release Date 2012-10-28 Alternative 9780691144597 Audience General AU Release Date 2013-01-06 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:161695907;

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