Prose Poems (Poemy v Proze)

Léon Bloy (1846–1917), a French writer and publicist of the 'end of the Belle Époque,' the turn of the 20th century, left behind a vast literary legacy consisting of novels, short stories, polemical press articles, several volumes of diaries, and miniatures. All of his texts combine a rare stylistic sophistication, a whimsical proto-surrealist imagery, and a fervent Catholic piety worthy of a medieval mystic. At the center of this small collection of prose poems, masterfully translated into Russian by Alexander Chernoglazov, is a unique menology—twelve visionary poems composed by Bloy based on an Art Nouveau calendar designed by his contemporary, the engraver and designer Eugène Grasset (1845–1917).