“This is a fine, bilingual edition of the works of one of the great French Surrealists. . . . The translations, by several hands, serve Char well—full of insinuating rhythms and unusual verbal couplings, they come close to the piercing beauty of the originals.” —Pat Monaghan, BooklistThe Selected Poems of René Char is a comprehensive, bilingual overview reflecting the poet’s wide stylistic and philosophical range, from aphorism to dramatic lyricis...

Hailed by the poet Paul Eluard as an 'absolute masterpiece' upon its first appearance in 1946, René Char's Hypnos is both a remarkable work of literature and a document of unique significance in the history of the French Resistance. Based on a journal Char kept during his time in the Maquis, it ranges in style from abrupt and sometimes enigmatic reflections, in which the poet seeks to establish compass bearings in the darkness of occupied France, to narrative descriptions that throw into v...

Now in paperback, René Char’s Hypnos is both a remarkable work of literature and a document of unique significance in the history of the French Resistance.Hailed by the poet Paul Eluard as an "absolute masterpiece" upon its first appearance in 1946, René Char’s Hypnos is both a remarkable work of literature and a document of unique significance in the history of the French Resistance. Based on a journal Char kept during his time in the Maquis, it ...

Probing the depths of the modern psyche in a voice at once caustic and vulnerable, melancholic and humorous, Baudelaire's infamous book brings to the surface a new understanding of evil, of eroticism, and of social life through an astonishing variety of poetic forms and styles. This edition adds the poems banned from the original 1857 publication to the expanded collection of 1861 and includes an introduction from the translator, acclaimed poetry scholar Nathan Brown.

The book that helped inspire Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot SeeAn updated edition of this classic World War II memoir, chosen as one of the 100 Best Spiritual Books of the Twentieth Century, with a new photo insert and restored passages from the original French editionWhen Jacques Lusseyran was an eight-year-old Parisian schoolboy, he was blinded in an accident. He finished his schooling determined to participate in the wo...

A reissue of Rimbaud’s highly influential work, with a new preface by Patti Smith and the original 1945 New Directions cover design by Alvin lustig.New Directions is pleased to announce the relaunch of the long-celebrated bilingual edition of Rimbaud’s A Season In Hell & The Drunken Boat — a personal poem of damnation as well as a plea to be released from “the examination of his own depths.”Rimbaud originally distributed A Season In Hell t...

Learn French fast: Apprenez le Français rapidement.As you may already know, French is not an easy-to-learn language.The best way to try to master French is to learn by heart its most popular idiomatic expressions.In this book, you will find the corresponding English version below every French "expression idiomatique". This will help you catch its full meaning in no time.Learn 200 French idioms, everyday phra...

Ce à quoi vous pouvez vous attendre et ce que vous pouvez faire pour aiderAider un proche malade à vivre ses derniers moments est l’une des expériences les plus difficiles de la vie. À mesure que la maladie progresse, il se peut que vous ayez à prendre des décisions importantes. Il se peut même que vous ayez à vous assurer que les besoins fondamentaux – de respect, de dignité et de confort de votre proche – soient satisfaits jusqu’à son dernier jour.

Alcools, first published in 1913 and one of the few indispensable books of twentieth- century poetry, provides a key to the century's history and consciousness. Champion of "cubism", Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) fashions in verse the sonic equivalent of what Picasso accomplishes in his cubist works: simultaneity. Apollinaire has been so influential that without him there would have been no New York School of poetry and no Beat Movement. This new translation reveals his complex, beauti...

NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR • One of the most widely read novels of all time—from one of the best-known writers of all time—about a lawyer from Paris who brilliantly illuminates the human condition.Elegantly styled, Camus' profoundly disturbing novel of a Parisian lawyer's confessions is a searing study of modern amorality.

Translated, edited and with an Introduction by Wyatt Mason“The definitive translation for our time.”–Edward HirschFrom Dante’s Inferno to Sartre’s No Exit, writers have been fascinated by visions of damnation. Within that rich literature of suffering, Arthur Rimbaud’s A Season in Hell–written when the poet was nineteen–provides an astonishing example of the grapple with self.As a companion to Rimbaud’s journey, readers could have no better gu...

The poems of Charles Baudelaire are filled with explicit and unsettling imagery, depicting with intensity every day subjects ignored by French literary conventions of his time. 'Tableaux parisiens' portrays the brutal life of Paris's thieves, drunkards and prostitutes amid the debris of factories and poorhouses. In love poems such as 'Le Beau Navire', flights of lyricism entwine with languorous eroticism, while prose poems such as 'La Chambre Double' deal with the agonies of artistic creat...