Perhaps the most difficult task in undertaking a study of nineteenth-century French poetry would be the selection of poets to study: who among us would care to choose only one from among Mallarme, Vigny, Hugo - and literally dozens of others - who so thoroughly and powerfully interpreted, shaped, and challenged the art forever more?

Author Michael Bishop, charged with that forbidding duty, has concentrated his study on ten central figures of that century: Desbordes-Valmore, Lamartine, Vigny, Baudelaire, Hugo, Mallarme, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Laforgue, and Lautreamont. And while the list of subjects is compact, Bishop's intense critical and personal analysis of th ese extraordinary giants is astounding. Not only has he delved deeply into the complex structure of each of these ten poetic oeuvres, but in so doing has introduced to the discussion a number of those poets seemingly excluded from the book.

Indeed, his thoughts on Nerval, Gautier, and others are frequently as perspicacious and comprehensive as those put forth in works devoted solely to those poets.

In examining the clearest and most distinct voices of nineteenth-century French poetry, Bishop has shrewdly probed a tradition, come to terms with modern criticisms, imparted truly fresh details of coherence resulting from intimate and informed readings, and joined hands across the ages - all the while preserving (and occasionally solidifying) the exquisite, individual integrity of particular oeuvres.

As he canvasses the charm and strength of Desbordes-Valmore's unaltered passion, Baudelaire's unsurpassed powers of versification, the stunning descriptive-narrative specificity of Hugo's lexicon, or the interplay of fiction and reality in Mallarme, Bishop constantly reflects the teeming fascinations and elan of the poets themselves.