Maldoror and the Complete Works

Maldoror and the Complete Works

4.29 of 5 stars 4.29  ·  rating details  ·  1,422 ratings  ·  67 reviews
Andre Breton described "Maldoror "as "the expression of a revelation so complete it seems to exceed human potential." Little is known about its pseudonymous author, aside from his real name (Isidore Ducasse), birth in Uruguay (1846) and early death in Paris (1870). Lautreamont bewildered his contemporaries, but the Surrealists modeled their efforts after his black humor an...more
Paperback, 352 pages
Published April 30th 2010 by Exact Change (first published June 28th 1869)
more details... edit details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
Nadja by André BretonMaldoror and the Complete Works by Comte de LautréamontUbu Roi by Alfred JarryThe Hearing Trumpet by Leonora CarringtonZenobia by Gellu Naum
Best Surrealist or Dadaist Books
2nd out of 37 books — 28 voters
1984 by George OrwellThe Catcher in the Rye by J.D. SalingerFahrenheit 451 by Ray BradburyAnimal Farm by George OrwellBrave New World by Aldous Huxley
Cult Classics
105th out of 331 books — 452 voters


More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)
filter  |  sort: default (?)  |  rating details
D. J.
Probably one of the most experimental, strange and horrifically beautiful books on the planet. A dream-like monument to man's imagination. One part 'Frankenstein' and one part 'Faust'. Epic in scope. Poetic in form. Gothic in style. Completely surreal.
كريم راهي
روعة السرد النثري في أناشيد مالدورور لايستطيع المرءُ منها فِكاكاً
من أمتع ما قرأت وما وقعتُ تحتَ تأثيره
كتبت بعد الفراغ منهُ نصّا شعرياً بعنوان هاراكيري



هاراكيري

ما يعجَزُ الكركيُّ عن تردادِهِ
هُنا وهُناك
يُغَنّيهِ في سَهمِ طيرانِهِ الطويل.

أوَدُّ أن أبوحَ بِسرّيَ للبئرِ
أو أدوّنَهُ على لَحاءِ الشَجر
لقد كنتُ كطائِرٍ مقتنص
يحومُ حولَ الشِراكِ ذاتِها
في كلِّ مرّة.
أتوقُ الآن
لإنعتاقي من إغواء الأمكنة
أتوقُ لجثوةٍ على الأرضِ، أخيرة
لنصلٍ ينفذُ في الخاصرة
وللحُبور في صيحةِ الروح المحلّقة.
Emre Aydemir
bir gün annem, donuk gözlerle bakarak, bana şöyle demişti: “yatağında yatarken, kırlarda köpek havlamaları duyacak olursan, yorganının altına gizlen, yaptıklarını alaya alma: sonsuzluğun o tutkusu yatışmaz hasretini çekmektedir onlar, tıpkı senin gibi, benim gibi, tıpkı soluk, zayıf yüzlü öteki insanlar gibi. dahası, bu oldukça yüce görünümü pencereden seyretmene de izin veriyorum.” o gün bu gün, ölü anacığımın öğüdüne uyarım. ben de tıpkı köpekler gibi sonsuzluk gereksinimi duyuyorum.. ama, çar...more
Henry Martin
What to say about Maldoror that hasn't been said yet? What to say about the mysterious son of a diplomat who appeared in France, wrote this book and died, vanishing from the world, yet leaving his mark for decades and centuries yet to come?

The first time I had the pleasure of reading this exceptional work, I was taken aback. Barely seventeen, I hungrily swallowed the disturbing images leaping at me from the pages, not to fully comprehend them until years later. This work, over a century old, is...more
Jericha
I'm not sure I can give this a number of stars. Would it be five for the total apocalyptic brilliance of the language or 0 for the deeply, astonishingly sick & twisted content? I'm not one to keep reading horrifying things; I don't watch horror movies and I avoid the worst of the news. But Maldoror is something special, a book about evil that is perversely about poetry. If it had been written now I might feel less inclined to love it, but with Rimbaud and Baudelaire for contemporaries it's a...more
Magdelanye
Back in the day, when I was young and passionate, I decided I had to read this book, and so I ordered it from our local bookshp and waited 7 weeks until I finally was summoned to come and get it.
That evening when the house was finally quiet,I built up a nice fire and poured myself a glass of wine. Cosy and prepared for an exquisite read,I was surprised to read first the authors note: reader, if you love this life, do not read this book. But I am brave, I thought, continuing.
A few more pages,the...more
Cam'Ron Asgari'an
The Count wrote this despicable (and I mean that as a compliment) poetic novel when he was 22 and it shows. It burns with the passion of someone who still believes in absolutes, believes he is cursed forever, has given up trying to reclaim what is already lost (innocence, faith), renounces the world and refuses to repent. In this sense it is both a nice reminder and a grim memory of that turbulent time in life.

Many of the sections read like black metal lyrics, which is cool, but also means they...more
Neil77
Les chants de Maldoror is a book I first tried to read almost a decade ago. Back then, I had found the first canto unreasonably hard going and gave it up for another day (the folly of youth). That day has now arrived.

This time I blazed through the book rather quickly.

The first canto was once again slightly hard to follow at times. I am not sure if it was poor writing or translation (I read the Lykiard) or my poor brain - quite possibly. I stuck with it, and to my suprise found the second canto...more
Ilsa
This is only a four because it would be a five if I'd read it in French. Which I didn't because I can't.

The bonusdelight of this edition is Alexis Lykiard's eloquent and well-researched disgust of previous translators. From "Note on the Text & Translation":

"The first English translation, Rodker's in 1924 (see Bibliography) is, unfortunately, an archaic travesty, full of elementary errors and misreadings, not to mention misprints ("Satan" for "Sultan," and other gems), while Wernham's 1943 gu...more
kirkesque
This is a book that would have been more favorable to my tastes at a different time in my life. By the time I read it, my interest in this darker subject matter hadn't waned, really, but was like a magnet on a different polarity than what Ducasse (Lautréamont) was writing.

This book would be well-placed on the same shelf with Morrison's Lords and the New Creatures, Rimbaud's A Season in Hell, and Gentry/Bugliosi's Helter Skelter, to be read when you're 13-14. I would have probably liked it more a...more
Simon Johansen
Comte de Lautréamont has to be the single most perplexing yet obviously talented author I've discovered since Louis-Ferdinand Céline. (why are these types almost always French?) Since he died at the age of 24, his complete works fit into less than 400 pages the bulk of which is taken up by a bizarre gothic novel titled "The Songs of Maldoror".

The title character is an Antichrist-like figure who does not just oppose the Judeo-Christian god, depicted here as a cross between the less moral gods of...more
Ian Drew Forsyth
Quotes from Intro:
Contains its own built in criticism
Mixes genres, deal in paradox and parody and make abrupt transitions whether thematic or stylistic, ensures a stimulating and multifaceted, rather than an easy or easily classifiable, read.
Opposes the Deity and indeed all authority that cramps the spirit.
Mixed genres of prose-poetry, poetic prose, the Gothic fantasy, the serial novel, horror and humor, authorial interventions, disruptions of space and time, stories-within-stories, plagiarisms...more
David Spencer
This might be the best book I've read all year. Alexis Lykiard's translation of Isidore-Lucien Ducasse and his Comte de Lautréamont (or is it Lautréamont and his Ducasse, for all that the figures of Lautréamont and Maldoror possess and know possession) is both charming and hilarious, as well as a much appreciated does of enlightenment to an Anglophone without a franc to their linguistic name (or any euro worth less than a pound these days, as it happens). If I were to raise a child, I'd raise th...more
Matt DeCostanza
It is interesting to think that around 1870, when Arthur Rimbaud's celebrity was international and at its peak, there was another young man writing sick prose of a similar quality. He was Isidore Ducasse and he died in the gutter, never to gain the adoration Rimbaud enjoyed.

Perhaps there's a reason for this. Les Chants are uneven and sometimes of suspect quality: this is especially seen in the second section of Canto II, where, after giving a typically Ducassian, abandon-all-hope warning diatrib...more
Patrick
Feb 19, 2010 Patrick marked it as to-read
Man, where to start? First off, admittedly superficially, I hate the edition of the book: I hate its stupid awkward size, I hate the sleep-inducing font, I hate the snotty and obscure introductions, I hate the David Lynch ripoff cover.

I'll read an entire page and totally forget what I just read completely. Nothing is holding my interest! Very rarely can I not simply ABSORB what I'm reading; here it just washed over me without sinking in. The only other time I can remember this happening is with...more
Hatebeams
Lautreamont is an aesthete of the highest order - the most grotesque, sadistic or revolting images will as often as not serve to counter some prior helping of the innocent or exquisite. The result is always something incisive, revelatory, profound. Maldoror's devotion to evil and continuous violations of the good seem to answer an underlying amorality in the universe at large - his philosophy is one of impious disgust at the hypocrisy of a God (represented as a guilt-ridden incontinent syphiliti...more
Marcus Mennes
My favorite line from Maldoror is, "...laugh but weep at the same time. If you cannot weep with your eyes, weep with your mouth. If this is still impossible, urinate. But I warn you, some sort of liquid is needed here..." which pretty much sums up the book's thesis. This book is (for lack of a better adjective) dark. It is also weird and funny. The laughter released is based in the gut, a coarse, foolish, belly laugh. It is distinct from the throaty chuckling made in response to some polite quip...more
Indigo
To be bluntly honest this is one of my favourite French classic author.

The rating is for the FRENCH EDITION, as I will NOT EVER try a translation of such beautiful work into another language than my mother tongue.

A bit like Wilde or Byron translated into French : not the same.

The only exception to this rule of mine is Poe, but I read the translation into French by Beaudelaire...
 Lio  Proeliator
في رحلة لاكتشاف الذات، أبحث أنا أيضاً عن كائنات تشبهني، لوتريامون ليس كئيباً للحد الذي يدعون، ليس قبيحاً للحدّ الذي يصفون.. لوتريامون يصف معشار القبح الذي يزيّن وجه هذه اﻷرض لوتريامون يكتب عن أولئك الذي يبحثون بمشقّة عن النوم في سنيّ عمرهم الطوال ولا يجدونه!.. في النشيد الخامس - المقطع الثالث لا أبحث عن شيء أجدني هناك مباشرة.. فقط أجدني هناك.. أجِدُّ السير أصل إلى فقط أنه لا يلزمني شيء إلا كائنات تشبهني..
كلما أحسست بالوحدة جلسته معه!.. توحّدتُ معه..
Josef
folks keep trying to explain this book.
GOOD LUCK!

My 13 year old daughter gave this to me as a birthday present. I gave away my last copy. This is by far the best english translation. I believe the translator Alexis Lykiard belong to my "Art" club in London: The Horse Hospital I met him there about 15 years ago.

This is one of those unbelievable books where you find yourself asking..."someone actually wrote the" many times.
Read it...you'll never forget it.
Jimmy Frohman
The best book on surrealism I have read yet. Lautreamont has always been considered the authority on surrealist thought and writing, but I have yet to read a translation as good as this. Highly recommended for anybody interested in the topic. Fantastic.
aykut
ilk paragrafını okuyunca işte hayatımın kitabı deyip ben doymadan kimseye bu kitabı önermem sorduklarında diye planlar yaptığım ama sonra ilerledikçe ve sonlara yaklaştıkça beklentimle ters düşen bir kitap. ah be lautréamont..
Eamon Loingsigh
Isidore Ducasse was and still is belittled by the literary establishment, though nothing can compare to his anti-heroic grandiose horrors. Rimbaud must have read him.
Douglas
Brilliant BOOK!! I still love having it around to look through. It is so inspiring that I almost always start writing when I read from this book.
Patrick
Something wonderfully and horribly unique... A work of genius! I really wonder what sophisticated pleasure one can get in reading the original. I should have studied French more diligently!
aboxofcereal
This book is at war with itself in every way conceivable to the imagination. Supreme dissatisfaction pushing onward into euphoria.
Marina
Uno dei libri più brutti che io abbia mai letto. Ne parlo qui: http://sonnenbarke.wordpress.com/2006...
slaveofone
The Chants of Maldoror: epic, grandiose, ludicrous, blasphemous, and foul. This book launched the Surrealist Movement.
Stuart Estell
Absolutely life-changing. One of those books after which most others don't seem quite so exciting any more.
Ramón Vázquez-gómez
THIS IS SOME COMPLETELY FUCKIN CRAZY SHIT!!! I LOVE THE PURE HEARTLESSNESS!!!!!!!!!
« previous 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 99 100 next »
topics  posts  views  last activity   
What's The Name o...: The Antichrist, and a shipwreck? [s] 5 21 May 12, 2013 11:01am  
My genius to portray the pleasures of cruelty! 2 7 Jan 25, 2013 08:13am  
أناشيد مالدورور (Paperback)
Oeuvres complètes (Poche)
Canti di Maldoror (Paperback)
Œuvres Complètes de Lautréamont:  Les Chants de Maldoror; Poésies; Lettres (Poche)
Lautréamont, Obra Completa (Edición Bilingüe)

153341
Comte de Lautréamont (French pronunciation: [lotʁeaˈmɔ̃]) was the pseudonym of Isidore Lucien Ducasse, an Uruguayan-born French poet.

His only works, Les Chants de Maldoror and Poésies, had a major influence on modern literature, particularly on the Surrealists and the Situationists. Les Chants de Maldoror is often described as the first surrealist book. He died at the young age of 24 years old.
More about Comte de Lautréamont...
Les Chants de Maldoror Maldoror and Poems (Penguin Classics) Les Chants de Maldoror et autres textes Poésies The Book of Masks: An Anthology of French Symbolist & Decadent Writing (Atlas Arkhive, #2)

Share This Book

Your website
“I sought a soul that might resemble mine, and I could not find it. I scanned all the crannies of the earth: my perseverance was useless. Yet I could not remain alone. There had to be someone who would approve of my character; there had to be someone with the same ideas as myself. It was morning. The sun in all his magnificence rose on the horizon, and behold, there also appeared before my eyes a young man whose presence made flowers grow as he passed. He approached me and held out his hand: “I have come to you, you who seek me. Let us give thanks for this happy day.” But I replied: “Go! I did not summon you. I do not need your friendship… .” It was evening. Night was beginning to spread the blackness of her veil over nature. A beautiful woman whom I could scarcely discern also exerted her bewitching sway upon me and looked at me with compassion. She did not, however, dare speak to me. I said: “Come closer that I may discern your features clearly, for at this distance the starlight is not strong enough to illumine them.” Then, with modest demeanour, eyes lowered, she crossed the greensward and reached my side. I said as soon as I saw her: “I perceive that goodness and justice have dwelt in your heart: we could not live together. Now you are admiring my good looks which have bowled over more than one woman. But sooner or later you would regret having consecrated your love to me, for you do not know my soul. Not that I shall be unfaithful to you: she who devotes herself to me with so much abandon and trust — with the same trust and abandon do I devote myself to her. But get this into your head and never forget it: wolves and lambs look not on one another with gentle eyes.” What then did I need, I who rejected with disgust what was most beautiful in humanity!” 14 people liked it
“Although according to certain philosophers it is quite difficult to distinguish the jester from the melancholic, life itself being a comic drama or a dramatic comedy.” 5 people liked it
More quotes…