Between Baudelaire and Mallarme

Rezensionen / Stimmen

'Helen Abbott brings a musical sensitivity to her analysis of what happens when we read a poem. Showing how Baudelaire and Mallarme departed from accepted poetic conventions to create the subtlest of exchanges between poet and reader, she reveals the workings of a fascinatingly complex interplay of sounds and voices in their poetry. Between Baudelaire and Mallarme challenges the reader to think in new ways about the extraordinary process of poetic creation and reception.' Anne Green, King's College London, UK 'This perceptive and elegantly written book explores the elusive notion of "voice" in poetry, and comes at the question with a deep knowledge of both its literary and its musical dimensions. Abbott's close readings of Baudelaire and Mallarme are exemplary, and her book is as important for the distinctions and dissociations it makes between the two as for the connections it pursues.' Patrick McGuinness, St Anne's College, University of Oxford, UK 'Abbott succeeds in demonstrating the mystery and complexity of the poetry she analyzes, and is careful to explore the notion of voice without reducing its ambiguity or elusiveness as a category. ... Abbott invites the reader to enter into greater appreciation of poetry as a phenomenon that will always disrupt and complicate our attempts to gain a full analytical grasp on its complexity.' H-France 'Supplied with a number of topic-specific tables, a wide ranging bibliography and a very helpful index, the book is a pleasure to read and is to be greatly recommended to anyone working on or interested in nineteenth-century French poetry and culture.' Journal of European Studies '... worthy of attention in the field of nineteenth-century French poetics and poetry.' Nineteenth-Century French Studies '... [an] innovative and wide-ranging methodology. ... Abbott's study, though a welcome addition to Baudelaire and Mallarme criticism, is perhaps even more valuable as a blueprint for a promising new type of interdis