Lautréamont

The Profile

Isidore-Lucien Ducasse (known as Comte de Lautréamont) was a French-language poet best known for Les Chants de Maldoror (published 1869). His work was later championed by the surrealists.

Born in Montevideo (Uruguay) on 4 April 1846. Les Chants de Maldoror (The Songs of Maldoror) published 1869. Associated posthumously with Surrealism; André Breton and others promoted his work. Died in Paris in 1870.

The available review celebrates Les Chants de Maldoror as an exaggerated, feverish masterpiece of anti-lyrical, grotesque prose-poetry. It situates Lautréamont alongside Corbière and Rimbaud as a heretic figure and notes the later surrealist championing of his work. The book (published 1869) is described as violent, iconoclastic and influential.