• The most complete collection of Valéry's poems available, with poems from all eras and some that have never been translated before
• Edited and translated by a specialist on Valéry
• The notes are thorough and fully researched, giving the precise details of the genesis and evolution of each poem, and to whom it was first sent
• The detailed Introduction gives a comprehensive picture of the writer, his work, chronology, status, and place in the literary world
• Each translation is highly accurate to give the truest interpretation of Valéry's complex thought, ideas, and philosophy

   
'The wind is rising!... Let us try to live!'

One of the preeminent intellectuals of modern French culture, Valéry is widely considered one of the country's greatest poets of the twentieth century. Following a flurry of sonnets in his late teens, he abruptly abandoned verse for twenty years. If the publication of The Young Fate in 1917 won him immediate and immense acclaim, his status as the outstanding poet of the era was firmly consolidated with the Album of Early Verse and Charms with its beautiful meditation on mortality, 'The Graveyard by the Sea', considered one of the finest poems in French. A classical voice in an era of avant-garde modernism, Valéry's often sensuous work was inspired by mysticism, myth, the Mediterranean, and above all passionate love. This bilingual edition brings together for the first time the complete verse with many unknown and previously unpublished poems taken from his abundant correspondence, which offers intimate insight into a private side of the writer.