Shakespeare and the French Poet

“Bonnefoy’s authority as a critic comes from his activities as a translator.  He writes of ‘pausing at every word’ and ‘even sliding beneath a lot of them.’ His essays on translation continue the preoccupation with image and presence as it relates to the ‘opposing metaphysics’ of the French and English languages: while English concerns itself naturally with the tangible, French encourages poets away from external reality to ‘a simplified, more circumscribed world’ with ‘certain selected precepts.’ . . . We can look to be well edified when the poet delivers the playwright.”—Elisabeth Dutton, Times Higher Education Supplement

"[A] deep and wide book."--Christopher Ricks, Times Literary Supplement

“Shakespeare and the French Poet is meticulously argued and extremely stimulating. . . . The careful interpretations of specific plays will challenge specialists, for Bonnefoy combines the insights of a foreign poet, an exacting translator, a critic versed in philosophy, and a humanist who is sensitive to the role of women in Shakespeare’s vision.”—John Taylor,  Hudson Review