Complete Poetry and Prose: A Bilingual Edition

By Louise Labé

Book Overview

Thanks to her acclaimed volume of poetry and prose published in France in 1555, Louise Lab (1522-66) remains one of the most important and influential women writers of the Continental Renaissance. Best known for her exquisite collection of love sonnets, Lab played off the Petrarchan male tradition with wit and irony, and her elegies respond with lyric skill to predecessors such as Sappho and Ovid. The first complete bilingual edition of this singular and broad-ranging female author, Complete Poetry and Prose also features the only translations of Lab 's sonnets to follow the exacting rhyme patterns of the originals and the first rhymed translation of Lab 's elegies in their entirety.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226467155
• ISBN13: 9780226467153
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

A moving saga, poignant yet explosive !

My mentor Lee Slonimsky (of Pythagoras In Love) highly recommended this author because of the similarity in the tone of our "walking poems". The prose and poetry by Louise Labe, with excellent translation by Annie Finch, depicts a poignant tale of love and passion that transcends death. The markings in her tombstone brought me tears, while her sizzling passionate poem (of kisses) mirrors my own romantic expressions in poetry. Simply loved it! Kudos to Annie Finch for capturing such fine moments of a French lover, in English.

Indispensable for the French Lit enthusiast

This is an excellent edition of the complete works of Louise Labe, who is one of the most important women writers of the French Renaissance and whose poetry is especially wonderful, providing a much-needed female perspective on the love lyric. One mustn't ignore Labe's prose however, for her "Debate of Folly and Love" is an excellent addition to the literary tradition of the debate and showcases Labe's proto-feminism. Deborah Lesko Baker provides excellent introductions to Labe's poetry and prose, describing her life and times and her relation to other Renaissance writers (esp. Christine de Pisan). Baker illuminates Labe's role as a distinctively female writer and how her sonnets respond to those of Petrarch. Essentially, then, Baker provides all the background necessary for a full understanding of Labe, and she also supplies copious and helpful footnotes to Labe's works. In addition, Annie Finch's translations of Labe's poetry are superb, capturing the spirit of the originals (of course, the french is on the facing page). All in all, this is an essential purchase for anyone interested in Labe or French Renaissance literature, being the only complete bilingual edition of Labe's works available and a model for all scholarly editions of its kind.