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Liked It “astounding and ravishing wordplay and ideas. not always exactly simple to keep up with, but one is rewarded who paces studiously throughout this book and tries to enjoy the animals of words and metaphors that swarm inside.” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It “Aga M. said: 2 stars |
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“Aga M. said: 2 stars
1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die Shelf wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Les Chants de Maldoror written by the Comte de Lautréamont - one says that this is a poetic novel, others that this is a very long prose poem. For me this novel created at the end of the XIX century is surely the most dark, surrealistic story I have ever read.
It is really hard to talk about the plot in the case of this book. It is only possible to say that this is the long, non-linear and detailed description of the main character – Maldoror – the personification of evil, an anti-hero without any moral spine or human emotions.
There is so much violence in this story, so many scenes of killing, cutting, raping, so many description of abominable creatures, so much filth that in many places the book is hard to read.
Besides the author is talking to his readers... He is addressing them quite often and I really do not appreciate the fact when the author is telling me that the story will be continued just after he – the author – has a chance to blow his nose...
Nevertheless I encourage you to read The Songs of Maldoror – quite an unusual experience.”“astounding and ravishing wordplay and ideas. not always exactly simple to keep up with, but one is rewarded who paces studiously throughout this book and tries to enjoy the animals of words and metaphors that swarm inside. ”
Matt S wrote this review Wednesday, June 29, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I know this work and am excited to reread it. Lykiard's translation is beyond compare.”
Joe B wrote this review Monday, September 28, 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“i'm afraid of this book”
Queen Jane wrote this review Monday, February 11, 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I really need to add some mediocre books, these starry books eat on the authenticity of my shelf. Then again, I give away the books that give me little or nothing... -- I knew a long time I must read Comte de Lautréamont. When I came across a promising Finnish translation the other year, I went for it, and my goodness what a ride I was given, starting from the first chapter that tells about a hair. A hair! From there it went onward, downward, in concentric circles, a vertigo, a drunken stupor into the shadowside of man, into hate, delusion, and the beauty of horror or the horror of beauty? Surely the grimness that the young author revelled in (describing himself thirty in the book, in reality being little more than 20) will turn off many as mere scandal-seeking, mere effects -- but I don't agree. Sometimes the form ("You think I'm mad?") repeats itself a bit, but these drawbacks are by far outweighed by the mere surreality of it all -- and this in the 1860s when surreality didn't even exist! It's no wonder Dalí and his friends embraced this young visionary long afterwards. I think it would be unfair to not mention that Isidore Ducasse a.k.a. Comte de Lautréamont intended to follow this tribute to evil with a following volume that would be a tribute to good -- had not war come in between, causing his premature death. The Finnish volume can obviously not be found on Shelfari, but this is an English edition I came across in Naples that also features other fragments. These I'm yet to read (as well as "Maldoror" in English).”
Timo K. wrote this review Friday, February 1, 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“The first surrealist book in the western countrys history. Sensuality and violance are interacting with the challenge of the greatest exorcisme of all time. Maldoro is mal D'aurore. From darkness to the light, from madness to sanity...”
Sohrab M wrote this review Tuesday, October 30, 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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