The French Parnassian Poets

Book excerpt: Robert T. Denommé, who has written ex­tensively on French literature, here offers a companion volume to his Nineteenth­-Century French Romantic Poets, previ­ously published in this series. Once again working within an historical, philosophi­cal, and aesthetic context, he provides a wealth of critical insights for the general reader as well as the specialist. His first chapter surveys the evolution of poetic expression in France, and succeeding chapters study the major poets--Théophile Gautier, Théodore de Banville, Leconte de Lisle, and José-Maria de He­redia. Incisive and concise, the book provides a good general introduction to, and a long-overdue reassessment of, French Par­nassianism.