Lautréamont’s Apocrypha
by Le Comte de Lautréamont
Isidore Ducasse (1846, known to the world as Lautréamont, is one of the most controversial, influential, and enigmatic figures in 19th century French literature. His classic, The Songs of Maldoror (also available in translation by R J Dent), was a precursor to the Surrealist movement and influenced many writers and artists, including André Breton, J. G. Ballard, Salvador Dali, and Man Ray, amongst others.
Lautréamont’s Apocrypha is a companion volume to The Songs of Maldoror. It is a comprehensive collection of all of Isidore Ducasse’s written work that he created before and after he had written and published The Songs of Maldoror. This volume includes the first English translation of the first draft of The First Canto of Maldoror (known and published as the Chant Premier), Poésies, the fragments, and the letters.
‘Lautréamont’s The Songs of Maldoror [is] the black bible… almost the basic dream
text of surrealism.’ J.G. Ballard
‘The Songs of Maldoror is an enigma of redoubtable power.’ Jacques Derrida
‘The Songs of Maldoror is the expression of a revelation so complete it seems to
exceed human potential.’ André Breton
Translated into modern English by R J Dent
Illustrated by Karolina Urbaniak
Out soon
Hardbound, 124 pages, 148 x 210mm
ISBN 978-1-915908-12-4
The first 28 copies come with a signed print.
About the contributors
R J Dent is a poet, novelist, translator and short story writer. As a renowned translator of European literature, he has published modern English translations of The Songs of Maldoror (Le Comte de Lautréamont); Speculations (Alfred Jarry); Capital of Pain (Paul Ėluard); Her Three Daughters (Pierre Louӱs); The Surrealist Manifesto and Soluble Fish (André Breton); The Dead Man (Georges Bataille); Stories, Tales, and Fables (Marquis de Sade); Poems & Fragments (Alcaeus); The Flowers of Evil and Fanfarlo (Charles Baudelaire); Scattered Leaves (Rene Crevel); The Seed and The Bridges (Tarjei Vesaas) and major works by Louis Aragon, Maurice Rollinat and Antonin Artaud.
As a poet and novelist, R J Dent is the author of a poetry collection, Moonstone Silhouettes; two novels, Revelation and Myth; a short story collection, Gothiques and Fantastiques; and two non-fiction books: Emily Dickinson’s Sexual Personae and Screaming at the Window, a true crime biography of Blanche Monnier: the Prisoner of Poitiers.
Karolina Urbaniak is a multimedia artist and co-founder of Infinity Land Press. Urbaniak’s published works include Altered Balance − A Tribute to Coil, Death Mort Tod - A European Book of the Dead and The Torture of the 100 Pieces. Her audio-visual work − Gasper (2015), On the New Revelations of Being (2018), Sandmann (2019), The Projection of the True Body (2022), Johannes Rass - Aktion Bos Taurus (2024) − has been shown at festivals in the UK and internationally. Urbaniak’s multimedia installation based on The Fall of Jerusalem by Hermann Nitsch was exhibited at the Prinzendorf Castle in Austria in June 2025. She lives and works in London.