Grace Notes: Appogiatures

Poetry. Art. Film. Translated from the French by Mary-Sherman Willis, these sparkling prose poems originally published by Jean Cocteau in 1953 seem written yesterday. Lively, irreverent, and surreal, each page leaves the reader breathless and laughing. Bilingual: French / English.

Jean Cocteau was a poet, novelist, playwright, filmmaker known for classic films such as Beauty and the Beast and Orpheus, but whatever the genre, all of his creations were essentially poetry. In this bilingual edition of GRACE NOTES, Cocteau’s wit, surrealism, and radical vision of the world are as timeless and shocking as when the book was published. And Mary-Sherman Willis’s fluid translation will let you enjoy every gloriously ornamental note. –Jesse Lee Kercheval

GRACE NOTES was published in the early 1950s, yet how fresh, even stylish, these prose poems are today, sparkling like little jewels. They are as ephemeral as a fleeting glance, or a hint of flavor on the tongue. They move by the music of the language (French), and by Cocteau’s flights of fancy as well as by his obsessions. Undoubtedly they are clever. But they are also funny and tragic. You are about to enter Cocteau’s capricious world. Prepare to be dazzled. –Barbara Goldberg