Swinburnes Atalanta in Calydon, a Facsimile of the First Edition; with a Preface by Dr. Georges Lafourcade

by Algernon Charles Swinburne

Leather Binding on Spine and Corners with Golden leaf printing on spine. This book is printed in black & white, Sewing binding for longer life, where the book block is actually sewn (smythe sewn/section sewn) with thread before binding which results in a more durable type of binding. Reprinted in 2022 with the help of original edition published long back 1912. As this book is reprinted from a very old book, there could be some missing or flawed pages. Resized as per current standards. We expect that you will understand our compulsion with such books. If it is multi volume set, then it is only single volume. 136 Atalanta in Calydon, a tragedy, by Algernon Charles Swinburne. [LeatherBound] Swinburne, Algernon Charles

Genres: Poetry, Mythology, Victorian

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1865

About the author

In musical, often erotic verse, British poet and critic Algernon Charles Swinburne wrote and attacked the conventions of Victorian morality.

This controversial Englishman in his own day invented the roundel form and some novels and contributed to the famous eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerno...

Reviews

[Kimmylongtime · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prose you say !! SOLD sprinkled in with a bit of old school swag !!

[Christopher (Donut) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would be difficult, if not impossible, to stage. I'm pretty sure it has been staged one time or another.

T. S. Eliot specifically mentioned this as the part of Swinburne's work that should endure, and although I abandoned it once before, I took it up this time in conjunction with Murder in the Cathedral. Two very different works, but the influence is there to see if one reads the two plays side by side.

I would guess that Swinburne was enough of a classicist to know how much of a "Greek tragedy" he was writing, and how much he was doing his own thing. To me, classicism implies a kind of restraint, almost a horror of excessive gestures, which this play, this dramatic poem, totally lacks.

[Táda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I keep reading that this is Swinburne's best, most brilliant poem. Coming to it after I read and fell in love with his Poems and Ballads, I must say I think that collection to be superior. Atalanta is almost painfully undramatic with characters whose motivations make sense only when close reading the speeches and narrative that does not well support the intensity of emotion the characters express. Yet the verse does have all that makes Poems and Ballads so dazzling. The songs of the chorus explore Swinburne's favourite topics like hatred of God/gods, (pain of) love, death, and tragedy of human condition with enchantingly mesmerizing verse. And in the final third, once the emotions reach their peak, the lyricism of overwhelming passions is as beautiful as in "The Triumph of Time" or "Laus Veneris." Furthermore, in Meleager Swinburne can again celebrate what he finds so attractive in paganism - a theology that supports life-affirming intensity of experience even if we, humans, are cursed to have our great pleasures accompanied with great pains (just like in "Hymn to Proserpine").

So yes, Atalanta is fantastic in everything except its narrative. Especially the two long speeches of messengers in the middle of the play reporting offstage events, as demanded by the genre, are a weak point. Nonetheless, Swinburne keeps successfully seducing me to rise in my ranks of the most admired poets.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can see my review in another edition: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Sabina Qeleposhi · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We admire in Swinburnes work not so much the depth of thought as the passion for beauty"

[marie :) · Rating 3 out of 5]

inspiration de carmilla qui a inspiré dracula, sauf que bram était trop timide et était moins explicite dans la représentation lesbienne