Product Description

André Breton wrote that Maldoror is "the expression of a revelation so complete it seems to exceed human potential." Little is known about its pseudonymous author aside from his real name (Isidore Ducasse), birth in Uruguay (1846), and early death in Paris (1870). Lautréamont’s writings bewildered his contemporaries but the Surrealists modeled their efforts after his lawless black humor and poetic leaps of logic, exemplified by the oft-quoted slogan, "As beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting-table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella!" Maldoror’s shocked first publisher refused to bind the sheets of the original edition… and perhaps no better invitation exists to this book which warns the reader, "Only the few may relish this bitter fruit without danger." This is the only complete annotated collection of Lautréamont's writings available in English, in a superior translation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #254316 in Books
• Published on: 1993-10-30
• Original language: French
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 340 pages

New York Times
"Lautréamont’s style is hallucinatory, visionary… this new fluent translation makes clear its poetic texture and what may be termed its subversive attraction."

Washington Post Book World
"Alexis Lykiard’s translation is both subtle and earthy… this is the best translation now available."

Customer Reviews

A masterwork of dark literature.
As savage as it is beautiful, as challenging as it is rewarding, Les Chants de Maldoror is an inspired and disquieting exploration of the evil humans are capable of. I have read several translations, and this one is by far the best.

Intensly strange, yet gripping and influential.
Isador DuCasse aka Le Compte de Lautremont is a great relatively unknown master who influenced the surrealists with Les Chants De Maldoror. An extended prose poem that destroy its own context (or total lack thereof). It can be looked on as either a great work or complete and total nonsense; I choose the former.

Wicked!
This is one of the most wicked books ever written!