Francis Ponge.
The Voice of Things.
New York: McGraw Hill, 1972.
Hardcover.
190 pages.
Very good.
Dust jacket has light toning at edges and minor wear primarily to top and bottom of spine. Book has black cloth boards with slight rubbing top and bottom. Strong binding and unmarked pages but for red circular sticker to front endpaper.
First American edition.
Scarce McGraw-Hill hardcover published in 1972 with cover design by Roy Kuhlman.
The Voice of Things (French: Le Parti pris des choses) is a collection of prose poems by French writer Francis Ponge, first published in 1942, with a significant English translation by Beth Archer Brombert released in 1972. The book is famous for Ponge's meticulous, essay-like descriptions of everyday objects (like oranges, potatoes, and soap) from their own perspective, aiming to restore the purity of language and avoid symbolism and emotion. It's considered a cornerstone of his work, focusing on the "description-definition-literary artwork" of the physical world.
