One Toss of the Dice: The Incredible Story of How a Poem Made Us Modern

A single poem made literary history and, presumably, ushered in modernity and the digital age that we live in—that's how powerful and revolutionary is French Symbolist poet and critic Stéphane Mallarmé's "One Toss of the Dice." Its publication in 1897 was considered a precursor literary event, which subsequently inspired several 20th-century schools of thought, such as surrealism, futurism, cubism, and Dadaism. Considered among the most enigmatic poems ever written, it tells the epic of loss, ruin, and recovery; a story about a shipwreck; a Master struggling in the waves, clutching dice in his fist just before sinking. As if to liberate the language, the poet uses a combination of free verse and inventive typographical layout spread over 20 pages with considerable blank space. Not only does Bloch (Sterling Professor of French, Yale Univ.) meticulously analyze the famed poem, but he also masterly situates the poet and his work in Belle Époque Paris among prominent literary and intellectual figures. Also included is a new full translation of the poem by J.D. McClatchy.