Paul Verlaine

de Harold Nicolson

“A brilliant biography and an impartial estimate of a much discussed French poet who illustrates vividly the currents and cross-currents which swayed French poetry between the sixties and the nineties. Verlaine reflected and inspired the impulses of the Symbolists and the Decadents.” — A.L.A. Catalog 1926 “The author‘s apology for writing still another life of Verlaine is that Verlaine, during his lifetime, stood in a unique relation to the movements of French literature. Born during the romantic period, his first writings were composed under the aegis of the Parnassians, and his later years reflected and inspired the impulses of the symbolists and the decadents. No one illustrates more vividly the currents and cross-currents which swayed French poetry between the ‘sixties and the ’nineties. No biography can equal his as an introduction to the French literature of to-day. The poet is depicted as a mild and docile creature while not under the brutalizing influence of drink, and amenable to every form of discipline except self-discipline. One chapter is devoted to Arthur Rimbaud, the evil genius of Verlaine’s life.” – The Book Review Digest