Description
For sale is a Near Fine paperback edition, first printing of The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire and translated by Clark Ashton Smith in The Complete Poetry and Translations Volume 3. First Paperback Edition stated, 2012 Hippocampus Press. First Printing with full number line, 1 3 7 9 8 6 4 2.
The exterior of the paperback edition is in Near Fine condition, with clean, bright covers with no creases, mild surface wear, strong title on an un-cracked spine, clean page blocks, a tight binding with no creases, lightly rubbed spine ends, mild edge wear and lightly curled corners.
The interior of the book is also in Near Fine condition, with no marks, inscriptions, or any other signs of ownership. The end papers and the interior pages are clean and bright.
In addition to being a prolific and innovative poet in his own right, Clark Ashton Smith was a noted translator of French and Spanish poetry. Teaching himself French in the mid-1920s, Smith undertook the ambitious program of translating the entirety of Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil) into English. Over the next several years he succeeded in translating all but six of the 157 poems that comprised the definitive (1868) edition of Les Fleurs du mal.
Smith also translated other noteworthy French poets-Paul Verlaine, Victor Hugo, Alfred de Musset, and Théophile Gautier, among others-as well as such obscure poets as Marie Dauguet and Tristan Klingsor. In the 1940s Smith taught himself Spanish, making splendid verse translations of such poets as Amado Nervo, Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, and and Jorge Isaacs.
The current edition presents Smith’s incomplete translation of The Flowers of Evil) into English in a side-by-side presentation, as well as his complete translations in French and Spanish of the other poets, and printing the French and Spanish texts on facing pages. All texts are annotated by S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz.
Ships promptly in manila Envelope with book wrapped in both craft paper and multiple layers of bubble wrap.
