Topinambours

Paul Valéry, La jeune Parque, 1925 edition.

Cover by Jeran-Gabriel Daragnès (1886-1950). Published in Paris by Émile-Paul frères, 1925.

“On the night of 4 October 1892, during a heavy storm, Paul Valéry entered an existential crisis. It became known as ‘The night of Genua’, and it made such a big impression on Valéry that he decided to give his career as an author a new direction: he stopped writing poetry. … For nearly twenty years, Valéry did not publish a single word.

Not until 1917 did Valéry break this ‘Great Silence’ with the publication of La jeune Parque, a poem of 500 lines of verse on which he had worked for approximately four years.” 

From the collections of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek - National library of the Netherlands

Camille Claudel, Clotho, 1893: «la fileuse, la plus jeune des Parques»

via Amateur d’art

A nocturnal country lane in France, by Lucien Rudaux, spotted by Woolgathersome.

The poetry is by Johannes Bobrowski, but it could equally well be by Philippe Jacottet. 

Marché - Boulevard de la Villette - Paris - 03/2008

PhotoSnack: Radis’bambelle

Yorkshire’s answer to Georges Brassens, Jake Thackray, with the man himself. By way of announcing an eight-day sojourn in the Yorkshire Dales, during which this tumblelog will be rollin’ and tumblin’, but just more slowly than usual.

via the always-excellent World Of Kane

Portrait of Madame Regnault de Saint-Jean d’Angely
Francois Pascal Simon, Baron Gerard

via Pattern Recognition

The Ephemera Society - Item of the Month 2008

via florizelle 

Brassaï, Avenue de l’Observatoire, 1934.

via wood s lot

Chômeurs

- an ill-assorted, shifty-looking, crew, via juniorbonner