Notes of the widow

In 1883–1884, Paul Verlaine finished the cycle of small stories and articles and called it “Notes of the Widow”. The fact is that the great poet, who was already over forty, persecuted hardships: the death of a lover, a divorce from Matilda Mote de Flewille, prison, lack of money, alcoholism. The bitter experience of the Vddovtsa Verlene became a kaleidoscope of the Paris and rural life-small, compressed and sharp narratives in the manner of “poems in prose” by S. Baudler. Of course, there are differences: frankness and lyricism, more free than verified Baudelaire, the style of the narrative. The Russian symbolist Ellis called the Notes of the Widow the lyrical autobiography of the poet-impressionist, which especially accurately characterizes this mature confession.
The collection includes some selected poems in the translations of F. Sologub