This anthology is the companion volume to The Appreciation of Modern French Poetry, the aim of which was to give detailed preliminary help with the problems of poetic appreciation. The fourteen poets represented here provide a varied and exciting introduction to what is probably the richest century of French poetry, from 1850 to 1950. Hugo, the colossus of the nineteenth century, whose work gives new resonance and vitality to imaginative vision, opens the anthology, and Michaux, the most individual and 'modern' of twentieth-century poets in that he bridges the gap between poetry and contemporary science, closes it. Almost all the major poets of the period are included: Nerval, Baudelaire, Mallarme, Verlaine, Rimbaud and Laforgue from the second half of the nineteenth century; Valery, Apollinaire, Supervielle and Eluard in the twentieth. The lesser known Cros and Desnos, fresh and spontaneous poets with an immediate appeal, invite a new look at the lyric traditions of french verse and offer an attractive new avenue for study. The choice of poems, dictated above all by their individual poetic value, reflects also the trends of recent criticism and the tastes of present-day readers. The texts are all accompanied by full notes, which not only explain local difficulties of vocabulary, syntax and expression, but lead the reader directly into the heart of the richness of theme, style and interpretation. These will prove of value not only to the student who is grappling with the basics of french verse, or is anxious to give depth to his familiarity, but to the general reader seeking to rekindle his enjoyment of French poetry. In addition, there are introductions to each poet summarizing the essence of his art, useful suggestions for further reading, and groups of dicussion topics to stimulate comparative insights and a wider responsiveness.

Apollonius used the manner and matter of epics but wrote from a personal viewpoint, as a critical observer, in his Argonautica, the fullest surviving account of Jason’s voyage in quest of the Golden Fleece.

Introduction: Literature and the Political Problem

1. Since 1917: A Brief History Soviet Literature Persistence of the Past Fellow Travelers Proletarians The Stalinists Socialist Realism The Thaw The Sixties and Seventies

2. Mayakovsky and the Left Front of Art The Suicide Note "Vladimir Mayakovsky, A Tragedy" The Cloud "The Backbone Flute" The Commune and the Left Front "The Bedbug" and "The Bath" Mayakovsky as a Monument Poets of Different Camps

3. Prophets of a Brave New World The Machine and England Olesha's Critique of the Reason Envy and Rage

4. The Intellectuals, I Serapions Boris Pilnyak: Biology and History

5. The Intellectuals, II Isaac Babel: Horror in a Minor Key Konstantin Fedin: The Confrontation with Europe Leonov and Katayev Conclusion

6. The Proletarians, I The Proletcult The Blacksmith Poets Yury Libedinsky: Communists as Human Beings Tarasov-Rodionov: "Our Own Wives, Our Own Children" Dmitry Furmanov: An Earnest Commissar A. S. Serafimovich: A Popular Saga

7. The Proletarians, II Fyodor Gladkov: A Literary Autodidact Alexander Fadeyev: The Search for a New Leo Tolstoy Mikhail Sholokhov: The Don Cossacks A Scatter of Minor Deities Conclusion

8. The Critic Voronsky and the Pereval Group Criticism and the Study of Literature Voronsky Pereval

9. The Levers of Control under Stalin Resistance The Purge The Literary State

10. Zoshchenko and the Art of Satire

11. After Stalin: The First Two Thaws Pomerantsev, Panova, and "The Guests" Ilya Ehrenburg and Alexey Tolstoy The Second Thaw The Way of Pasternak

12. Into the Underground The Literary Parties The Trouble with "Gosizdat": End of a Thaw Buried Treasure: Platonov andBulgakov The Exodus into "Samizdat" and "Tamizdat": Sinyavsky

13. Solzhenitsyn and the Epic of the Camps "One Day" "The First Circle" and "The Cancer Ward" The Gulag "The Calf and the Oak: Dichtung and Wahrheit" Other Contributions to the Epic

14. The Surface Channel, I: The Village

15. The Surface Channel, II: Variety of Theme and Style The City: Intelligentsia, Women, Workers The Backwoods: Ethical Problems Other New Voices of the Sixties and Seventies World War II Published Poets A Final Word on Socialist Realism

16. Exiles, Early and Late The Exile Experience "Young Prose" and What Became of It Religious Quest: Maximov and Ternovsky Truth through Obscenity: Yuz Aleshkovsky Transcendence and Tragedy: Erofeev's Trip Poetry of the Daft: Sasha Sokolov Perversion of Logic as Ideology: Alexander Zinoviev A Gathering of Writers

Conclusion Notes Selected Bibliography Index