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Histoires Extraordinaires; [together with] -- Nouvelles Histoires Extraordinaires; [and] -- Aventures D'Arthur Gordon Pym.

by BAUDELAIRE, Charles (trans.); POE, Edgar Allan.

$6,156 · Offered by Biblio

First edition

Paris: Michel Lévy Frères, , 1856-58. The original three Baudelaire translations First editions. Baudelaire's famous prose translations of Poe began with these three works and were not continued for another seven years. Though Poe's national image was long a matter of controversy, in continental Europe his reputation was immediately established through the translations of Baudelaire, who "forever blended the style, form and spirit of Poe with the literature of France" (Harner). For Baudelaire, "Poe was an alter-ego, a long-lost brother, a partner in crime, and a writer in whom he could confide his sacred fury. Of the twelve volumes of Baudelaire's complete works, five are devoted to his brilliant translations of Poe" (Foye, p. 75). The project "was not far different from that of an impassioned believer translating the New Testament" (Arthur Ransome, p. 225), and it left an indelible mark on the careers of both men. According to Valéry, Baudelaire's natural talents "would have made him only an emulator of Gautier, or an excellent artist of the Parnassian school, if he had not, due to his inquiring turn of mind, had the good fortune to discover a new intellectual world in the words of Edgar Poe... From this point onward Baudelaire will possess his canonical identity" (cited in Blood, pp. 42-3). The set includes Baudelaire's early study, "Edgar Poe: Sa vie et ses oeuvres", and some of Poe's most famous stories, such as "The Gold-Bug", "The Black Cat", and "The Masque of the Red

  • Year: 1856
  • Edition: First Edition
  • Binding: hardcover

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