The Songs of Maldoror
by Le Comte de Lautréamont
The Songs of Maldoror written and published between 1868 and 1869 by Le Comte de Lautréamont – the nom de plume of the Uruguayan-born French writer Isidore Lucien Ducasse – is a dazzlingly macabre novel consisting of six superlative cantos. Overflowing with lucid poetic imagery and saturated with sublime malevolence, it channels the ominous dynamism of the most exquisite nightmares and perfidious fantasies. A jewel in the crown of literary cruelty, this visionary masterpiece of prose-poetry was rediscovered by the Surrealists in the early 20th century, an arcane text emerging from obscurity to be hailed as a dark progenitor of their movement.
‘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
With essays by Audrey Szasz and Jeremy Reed
Out now
Hardbound, 288 pages, 148 x210mm
ISBN 978-1-8382803-7-6
The first edition includes 28 Collector's sets
Collector's edition
Each Collector's Edition set includes on signed and numbered A4 photograph printed on
premium rag and alpha-cellulose fine-art photo paper.
Limited to 28 copies
Available now
Audio-trailers
Read by R J Dent with a soundtrack by Karolina Urbaniak
Press
About the contributors
R J Dent
R J Dent is a poet, novelist, translator, essayist, and short story writer. As a renowned translator of European literature, R J Dent has published modern English translations of The Songs of Maldoror (Le Comte de Lautréamont); The Flowers of Evil (Charles Baudelaire); Speculations (Alfred Jarry); The Dead Man (Georges Bataille); Poems & Fragments (Alcaeus), as well as significant works by Guillaume Apollinaire, Louis Aragon, Antonin Artaud, André Breton, Paul Celan, Paul Éluard, Maurice Heine, Pierre Louÿs, Arthur Rimbaud, Maurice Rollinat, the Marquis de Sade and Tarjei Vesaas.
As a poet and novelist, R J Dent is the author of a poetry collection, Moonstone Silhouettes; a novel, Myth, and a short story collection, Gothiques and Fantastiques.
Karolina Urbaniak
Karolina Urbaniak is a multimedia artist and co-founder of Infinity Land Press. Urbaniak’s published works include To Putrefaction, Altered Balance – A Tribute to Coil, The Void Ratio, Death Mort Tod – A European Book of the Dead, The Torture of the 100 Pieces and On The New Revelations of Being, an audio/visual installation inspired by the work of Antonin Artaud.
She lives and works in London.