Collected French Translations: Prose
Description
An essential, vibrant collection of masterful translations by one of the finest poets at work today
Collected French Translations: Prose, the second volume in a landmark two-volume selection of John Ashbery's translations, focuses on prose writing. Ashbery's own prose writings and engagement with prose writers-through translations, essays, and criticism-have had a profound impact on the cultural landscape of the past half century. This book presents his versions of, among others, the classic French fairy tale "The White Cat" by Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy, as well as works by such innovative masters as Raymond Roussel and Giorgio de Chirico. Here are all of Roussel's Documents to Serve as an Outline and extracts from his Impressions of Africa; selections from Georges Bataille's darkly erotic first novella, L'abbé C; Antonin Artaud's correspondence with the writer Jacques Rivière; Salvador Dalí on Willem de Kooning's art; Jacques Dupin on Giacometti; and key theoretical and conceptual texts by Odilon Redon, Jean Hélion, Iannis Xenakis, and Marcelin Pleynet. Several of these twenty-nine prose pieces, by seventeen fiction writers, playwrights, artists, musicians, and critics, are previously unpublished or have been long unavailable. Many are modern classics, such as Pierre Reverdy's Haunted House. This book provides fresh insight into the range of French cultural influence on Ashbery's life and work in literature and the arts.
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Contents
"Curious Resemblances": Ashbery Translates French Prose by Rosanne Wasserman and Eugene Richie
Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy (1650-1705)
The White Cat
Odilon Redon (1840-1907)
From To Oneself
Alfred Jarry (1873-1907)
Fear Visits Love
Raymond Roussel (1877-1933)
An Unpublished Note
From Impressions of Africa
Documents to Serve as an Outline
Note by John Ashbery
Introduction to "In Havana" by John Ashbery
In Havana
First Document
Second Document
Third Document
Fourth Document
Fifth Document
Sixth Document
Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978)
On Silence
Courbet
The Engineer's Son
The Survivor of Navarino
Selection One from Hebdomeros
Selection Two from Hebdomeros
That Evening Monsieur Dudron . . .
It Was Something Like . . .
Monsieur Dudron's Adventure
Pierre Reverdy (1889-1960)
Haunted House
Antonin Artaud (1896-1948)
Correspondence with Jacques Rivière
Georges Bataille (1897-1962)
From L'abbé C.
Eponine
Henri Michaux (1899-1984)
Introduction to an Exhibition Catalogue
Michel Leiris (1901-1990)
Conception and Reality in the Work of Raymond Roussel
Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)
The Incendiary Firemen
De Kooning's 300,000,000th Birthday
Jean Hélion (1904-1987)
Figure
Pierre Martory (1920-1998)
Introduction to Washington Square by Henry James
Raymond Mason (1922-2010)
Where Have All the Eggplants Gone?
Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001)
The Cosmic City
Jacques Dupin (1927-2012)
Texts for an Approach
Marcelin Pleynet (1933)
The Image of Meaning
Appendix: Chronology of First Publication Dates of Translations
Bibliography
Acknowledgments