This book starts by asking why a group of doctors produced an edition of Belleau in 1945. It then traces the motifs of sickness and healing in the poet's work, ranging more widely than critics have hitherto done, and considering La Reconnue and the Dictamen alongside the better-known texts. It suggests that the supposedly frivolous Belleau is a poet-doctor aiming to cure the reader of melancholy and to come to the aid of a war-torn France.
The author lectures at Birkbeck College, University of London, has published widely on the Pléiade, and has edited works by Belleau. |
