Description
In the tradition of The Swerve, this thrilling, detective-like work of literary history reveals how a poem created the world we live in today.
The forerunner of our digital age, a French poem about a shipwreck published in 1897, with its mind-bending possibilities of being read up and down, backwards and forwards, even sideways, launched modernism. Stéphane Mallarmé’s “One Toss of the Dice” has for over a century tantalised everyone from physicists to composers to graphic artists. R. Howard Bloch decodes the poem still considered among the most enigmatic ever written. Creating a shimmering portrait of Belle-époque Paris with a cast of exotic characters—Napoleon III, the Lumiere brothers, Auguste Rodin, Berthe Morisot, even an expatriate American dentist, Bloch positions Mallarmé as the spiritual giant of late-nineteenth-century France. Featuring a new translation of the poem by J.D. McClatchy, One Toss of the Dice reveals how a masterpiece shaped our perceptual world.
Also By: R. Howard Bloch 
Paris and Her Cathedrals
Paperback, 2024
For history readers, travellers and scholars alike, an indispensable behind-the-scenes guide to the great cathedrals of Paris
Paris and Her Cathedrals
Hardback, 2022
For history readers, travellers and scholars alike, an indispensable behind-the-scenes guide to the great cathedrals of Paris from one of our leading scholars
Paris and Her Cathedrals
E Book, 2022
For history readers, travellers and scholars alike, an indispensable behind-the-scenes guide to the great cathedrals of Paris from one of our leading scholars
The Fabliaux
Hardback, 2013
Winner • Modern Language Association’s Scaglione Prize for TranslationBawdier than The Canterbury Tales, The Fabliaux is the first major English translation of the most scandalous and irreverent...
The Fabliaux
E Book, 2013
Winner • Modern Language Association’s Scaglione Prize for TranslationBawdier than The Canterbury Tales, The Fabliaux is the first major English translation of the most scandalous and irreverent...
