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Stéphane Mallarmé

French Symbolist poet (1842-1898) · France · Writers · Died at 56

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A French poet who wrote so densely that his verse became a kind of architecture - and in doing so laid groundwork for Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, and Surrealism before any of those movements existed.

WritersWriter / AuthorPoetryLiteratureFranceEurope19th Century

A life in dates

1898Died9 September 1898“Magical shadow with symbolic powers! A voice from the distant past, an evocation, Is it not mine prepared for incantation?”In their wordsNurse.

“When the sad sun sinks, It shall pierce through the body of wax till it shrinks!”In their wordsNurse.

“A kiss would kill me, woman, If beauty were not death... By what attraction Am I drawn, what morn forgotten by the prophets That pours on the dying distance its sad rites?”In their wordsHérodiade.

“How, save through obscure Terrors, imagine more implacable still And as a suppliant the god who some day will Receive the gift of your grace!”In their wordsNurse.

1866“Yes, I know, we are merely empty forms of matter, but we are indeed sublime in having invented God and our soul.”In their wordsApril 1866Letter to Henri Cazalis (April 1866), published in Selected Letters of Stéphane Mallarmé (1988), p. 60.

1865“It is in front of the paper that the artist creates himself.”In their wordsFebruary 1865Letter to Eugène Lefébure (February 1865), published in Selected Letters of Stéphane Mallarmé (1988), p. 48.

1842Born18 March 1842

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Mallarmé NadarMallarmé NadarAnatole MalarméAnatole MalarméDegas - Stéphane Mallarmé et Paule Gobillard devant Jeune fille dans un jardin d'Edouard Manet, PHO 1986 83Degas - Stéphane Mallarmé et Paule Gobillard devant Jeune fille dans un jardin d'Edouard Manet, PHO 1986 83Degas, Edgar - Renoir und Mallarmé (Zeno Fotografie)Degas, Edgar - Renoir und Mallarmé (Zeno Fotografie)Germain Nouveau CarjatGermain Nouveau CarjatGrave of Harriet Smyth, Kensal Green Cemetery, February 2024Grave of Harriet Smyth, Kensal Green Cemetery, February 2024Illustratie met staande naakte vrouw tussen bomen bij een meer bij gedicht Petit Air van Stéphane Mallarmé Illustration pour le sonnet Petit Air de Stéphane Mallarmé L'Epreuve (serietitel), RP-P-1967-1031Illustratie met staande naakte vrouw tussen bomen bij een meer bij gedicht Petit Air van Stéphane Mallarmé Illustration pour le sonnet Petit Air de Stéphane Mallarmé L'Epreuve (serietitel), RP-P-1967-1031Le Premier Livre des cachets, marques et monogrammes - dessinés par Georges Auriol ; (préface de Roger Marx) - btv1b105017649 (047 of 180)Le Premier Livre des cachets, marques et monogrammes - dessinés par Georges Auriol ; (préface de Roger Marx) - btv1b105017649 (047 of 180)

In their own words 10

,
Stéphane Mallarmé
,
10 statements, newest first

  1. Magical shadow with symbolic powers! A voice from the distant past, an evocation, Is it not mine prepared for incantation?

    1898, Nurse., Own words

  2. When the sad sun sinks, It shall pierce through the body of wax till it shrinks!

    1898, Nurse., Own words

  3. Are you a living princess or her shadow? Let me kiss your fingers and their rings, and bid you Walk no longer in an unknown age...

    1898, Nurse., Own words

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Awards

Taylorian Lecture

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Stéphane Mallarmé

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About this person

Étienne Mallarmé, who went by Stéphane, was born on 18 March 1842 and became a major figure in French Symbolist poetry. His work as both poet and critic pushed language into new territory - compact, elusive, structured like puzzle-boxes. That compression and the way he treated words as objects rather than just vehicles anticipated the fractures and abstractions that would define early 20th-century art. By the time he died on 9 September 1898, he'd already sketched the blueprint for revolutions he wouldn't live to see.

Country
France
Category
Writers
Type
Writer / Author
Status
deceased
Dates
Lived 1842 to 1898 · aged 56

Writers from France 6

Théophile Gautier66.7François-René de Chateaubriand66.4Jean-Yves Le Gallou67.0Marc-Édouard Nabe66.3Pierre Corneille67.0François de La Rochefoucauld66.1

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