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The Book of Repulsive Women & Other Poems

Djuna Barnes

Edited by Rebecca Loncraine

Cover Picture of The Book of Repulsive Women & Other Poems
10% off
Categories: 20th Century, American, British, LGBTQ+, Women
Imprint: Fyfield Books
Publisher: Carcanet Press
Available as:
Paperback (220 pages)
(Pub. Sep 2003)
9781857547078
£9.95 £8.96
Digital access available through Exact Editions
  • Description
  • Excerpt
  • Author
  • Though her lips are vague and fancy
    In her youth -
    They bloom vivid and repulsive
    As the truth.
    from "Seen from the 'L'"
       
    Djuna Barnes (1892-1982) once described herself as the most famous unknown writer, and although her novel, Nightwood is celebrated, her poetry has been a well-kept secret until now. This selection, the only one currently available, contains work written between 1914 and the 1970s. Many of the poems in The Book of Repulsive Women first appeared in pamphlets and literary journals in New York and Paris. Published together for the first time, they throw new light on Barnes' development as a writer. The book reveals her as a poet of unique power, at once compelling and disorientating. Marianne Moore observed, "reading Djuna Barnes is like reading a foreign language, which you understand".

    The Book of Repulsive Women includes previously unpublished poems, and five illustrations by Barnes herself. Rebecca Loncraine provides an essential introduction to Barnes' poetry.
    Djuna Barnes
    Djuna Chappell Barnes was born in Cornwall-on-Hudson in 1892, and she grew up in an eccentric, polygamous household. She was educated at home by her suffragist grandmother. She moved to New York in 1911, where she briefly studied at the Pratt Institute of Art, and where she made her living as ... read more
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