Published in 2006 (originally printed in French in 1555)
296 pages
Louise Labe wrote in the early 16th century in Lyon, France. Associated with the French Pleiade school (du Bellay, Ronsard, Marot) she may or may not have been the lover of Oliver Magny. Whatever the relationship between her private life and her writing, she is one of the most emotional, raw and honest poets – or at least has the skill to make her writing appear emotionally authentic and sincere.
Deborah Lesko Baker is associate professor and chair of French at Georgetown University. Annie Finch is the director of the Stonecoast Low-Residency Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program at the University of Southern Maine.
What is this book about?
Thanks to her acclaimed volume of poetry and prose published in France in 1555, Louise Labé (1522-66) remains one of the most important and influential women writers of the Continental Renaissance. Best known for her exquisite collection of love sonnets, Labé played off the Petrarchan male tradition with wit and irony, and her elegies respond with lyric skill to predecessors such as Sappho and Ovid. The first complete bilingual edition of this singular and broad-ranging female author, Complete Poetry and Prose also features the only translations of Labé’s sonnets to follow the exacting rhyme patterns of the originals and the first rhymed translation of Labé’s elegies in their entirety.
