Contes d'Espagne et d'Italie

Article number 10123853

Alfred de Musset’s Contes d’Espagne et d’Italie was his first published volume of poetry. By the very title the nineteen-year-old poet conjures up the vision of the two countries dear to all Romantics. While much in the volume appears to be typically Romantic, the poems already indicate something of Musset’s departure from the main stream of Romanticism and reflect an irony that appeals to modern readers. In her introduction and notes the editor demonstrates both the pleasure that can still be derived from the poems’ exuberance, the amusement that the excesses of Romanticism arouse at the present time, and the sense of wonder as one watches the development of the poet’s individual style. The text used is that of the first edition published in 1830. Dr Margaret Rees was formerly Lecturer in French at the University of Liverpool. Illustration by Pollet, after Landelle, reproduced by permission of the Mansell Collection.