The oxymoronic notion of poems in prose was popularized in France by Charles Baudelaire and subsequently mined by countless authors and many movements, from Rimbaud to Renée Vivien, from the Parnassians to the Decadents.
Collecting together one hundred seventy different pieces from sixty-one authors,
Poems in Prose: A Showcase Anthology
, is the most broad-ranging anthology of its kind. Surveying prose poetry from its precursors, through the Third Republic, and up until the beginning of the twentieth century, the volume brings together texts from well-known exponents such as Stéphane Mallarmé and Marcel Schwob, as well as numerous lesser-known authors. A large portion of the texts, including items by Jean Lorrain, Augusta Holmès, and Hugues Rebell, appear in English for the first time.
The volume, one of a handful that editor and translator Brian Stableford left behind, provides an in-depth introductory essay, as well as brief biographies of the various personalities presented.