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Product Description
Cocteau's novel Les Enfants Terribles, which was first published in 1929, holds an undisputed place among the classics of modern fiction.Written in a French style that long defied successful translation—Cocteau was always a poet no matter what we was writing—the book came into its own for English-language readers in 1955 when this translation was completed by Rosamund Lehmann. It is a masterpiece of the art of translation of which the Times Literary Supplement said: "It has the rare merit of reading as though it were an English original." Lehrmann was able to capture the essence of Cocteau's strange, necromantic imagination and to bring fully to life in English his story of a brother and sister, orphaned in adolescence, who build themselves a private world out of one shared room and their own unbridled fantasies. What started in games and laughter because for Paul and Elisabeth a drug too magical to resist. The crime which finally destroys them has the inevitability of Greek tragedy. Illustrated with twenty of Cocteau's own drawings. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

This is not Enfant Terribles - but a play from 1940
I am sorry to disappoint buth the volume listed here is Les Monstres Sacres - a play in 3 acts by Cocteau from 1940 and not the famous novel. It is one of Cocteau's less exciting pieces - a wordy parlour play - his attempt at a comedy of manners. Doesn't quite have that bite.

Everybody has their reasons
Jean Cocteu's work is beyond compare & The Holy Terrors (Les Enfants Terribles) is a great starter kit for those unfamiliar with his genius.

Cocteau works his magic slowly & once you're under its spell, you won't put up a fight. Try it, you'll like it...it's an all ages show.

Disturbing
Having never even read Jean Cocteau's poetry, I was completely unprepared for this disturbing story. It starts out innocently enough, with a childhood snowball fight, but the reader is soon enveloped in the fantasy world created by Paul and his sister Elisabeth. But as they grow older, and their competing magnetic personalities enslave their friends, they find themselves almost completely removed from reality and heading toward disaster. Paul and Elisabeth and neither likable or unlikable...they seem to be completely above our likes and dislikes.

This book is a fairly quick and easy read, but it's still rich in its language and with unforgettable characters. It should also appeal to a wide range of readers. Anyone who enjoys French literature, psychological drama, Shakespearean tragedies, or fantasy fiction will really enjoy this book.

Excellent translation of Les enfants terribles.
Whilst one can seldom recapture all of the cultural and linguistic nuances in undertaking such a translation, this work admirably maintains the integrity of the original work.

I love this book
The book starts out as an innocent coming-of-age story but transforms itself into a macabre phantasmagoric thriller towards the end.

Breathtakingly beautiful Cocteau's style illuminates the themes of teenage friendship and love, jealousy and cruelty, his imagination creating grotesque and twisted but eminently fascinating and haunting images. ... Read more

Product Description
At one traumatic stage in his life, Cocteau became addicted to opium. Here he describes not only his extraordinary experiences when taking the drug, but also his sufferings while being treated for opium poisoning. Cocteau also reminisces about some of his closest friends, including Nijinsky and Proust, and provides revealing insights into his own life and the creation of some of his masterpieces. Opium remains a record of the liveliest impromptu mind of modern France."" - TLS. ""Hypnotic collection of maxims, stories and reflections."" - LA Times. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Excellent Introduction to Jean Cocteau
This was my first experience with Jean Cocteau many years ago.It is a perfect read.This book provides you with a mix of Cocteau's personal history, philosophies, artwork, and overall poetic view of life.This is the best launching point into this well known and complex artist that everyone has heard of but far fewer have experienced.

a caveat
regardless of its presentation, this is among his most amazing works. I am not familiar with this edition, so... can someone tell me if the illustrations are included during the text or do they follow the text at the end.the former is preferred.thankyou.

Opium is one of the most important books I have read.
Cocteau is a genius. In Opium, Diary of a Cure, he recounts the experience of his recovery from opium addiction in 1929. He gives an account that sometimes touches on his moment to moment experiences of drug withdrawal,sometimes remarks on his current thoughts about other people and things inhis world. Since he lived in the world of avante-garde French culture, hiscomments include Picasso or Satie.His descriptions and criticisms includereferences to his own works or to the climate of the period and offer astunning look at his own thoughts in this extraordinary moment. ... Read more

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COCTEAU: his life in words
To know Jean Cocteau, visit the chapels, tombs & monuments he left for posterity, or watch his films. If you can't, read this book.

Terrific Biography
I originally picked this book up at the library and liked it so much I bought two copies: One for myself and one for a friend.This is a wonderful biography of one of the most influential men of the Arts in France.Since I don't live in France, or Paris to be exact since his influence would have been felt there the most, I don't know if forty years after his death he still influences the Arts or not.However, he was a force to be reckoned with during his lifetime and this bio gives the reader a great sense of what Paris was like from the late 1800's to the early 1960's.Fascinating.

The French creative force
Cocteau seems to turn up in most unusual places.First he is praised by no less a figure than Edith Wharton, then he is hobnobbing with Proust, then off with Picasso, Diagalev, Stravinsky, and the Ballets Russes set, finally he is a film maker of the live action film of Beauty and the Beast.In between his life was filled with more living than should be allowed by law.Steegmuller's biography does justice to this life and probably will remain the definative text on the subject. ... Read more

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fiction, tr Margaret Crosland ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Literary jewel
The novel becomes too short, it's a little jewel of emotions, melancholy and forbidden love in the 40's way.

A book about acceptance and tolerance
A young man, sentencing himself to a self-imposed exile, writes a book tracing his infatution with boys. It all begins fairly innocently, with his first glimpse of a nude young man while out hunting. The sight and sensations he feels cause him to faint.

Wanting to learn more about his attraction, he tries to trick a young servant into allowing him to experience what he has seen. And, in school, he develops an interest in one of the other students, Dargelos, who is very manly for his age, wearing trousers and an open-necked shirt. This infatuation ends in tragedy and haunts the young man for the rest of his life.

Realizing that his desires are too different from what is considered normal and accetpable, he attempts to hide his true feelings through a series of failed love affairs: a relationship with an actress named Jeanne whom he discovers to be a Sapphist; befreinding a prostitute named Rose and her "brother" Alfred, with whom he begins an affair behind Rose's back; the beautiful young sailor PAS DE CHANCE who painfully reminds him of Alfred.

Seeing no end in sight to his aching, the young man tries to find solace with the church. This proves difficult when he falls for a young man on a beach, who believes in God but not in religious dogma. Their relationship is put to the test when the young man discovers his new love's infidelities with women.

...But, it is more of a statement against society at large for creating the negativity.At the end, the young man exiles himself, leaving the book behind as a reminder that "I am not exiling a monster, but a man whom society will not allow to live" and a plea for tolerance and acceptance. ... Read more

Product Description
Although better known for his poetry, films and novels, Jean Cocteau experimented with drawing from childhood, and his caricatures have become iconic of his unique vision of people and life. This collection of erotic drawings covers four decades of work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

You can FEEL the blood flowing through his penises!:--)
Seriously though.I have never seen such amazing penises!!I came across a show of Jean Cocteau work at a museum in Montreal in 2004.I was not familiar with him, but immediately fell in love.Homoerotic drawings are just one type of his works, but I must say, the realism in these drawings is just phenomenal...

Dreamy erotic Art
Whit Jean Cocteau drawings you're flying on erotic clouds.Yes,this the Dreamtime of sex,when anything is possible.
While being essential, Jean Cocteau's drawing is gentle and evocative. I loved it!

A refined Tom of Finland
I accidentally stumbled across the work of this artist during a recent trip abroad.I had never heard of Cocteau or his reputation as an artist.His nudes are both provocative and engaging.Although this book only shows one dimension of his craft, it is well assembled and the quality of the publication is exceptional.Don't miss your chance to see his work if you can.There is really nothing else like it. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

jul
ju ... Read more

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Poet, novelist, dramatist, essayist, artist, illustrator and film producer, Jean Cocteau made art an integral part of his intensely creative life. In this personal view, Mauries concentrates on important and unusual aspects of Cocteau's life and work, considering the genius of place he exhibited throughout his life, the strange and mythical world he created and the enchantment that lies at the heart of each of his creations. This book is a tribute to the effervescent spirit and creative genius of one of the most original and versatile personalities of the 20th century. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (9)

Daughter Loves This Film
I bought this as a Christmas present for my daughter.She loves French and wanted this movie badly.She has watched it several times and seems to love it.

GREAT!!!
I purchased this not too long ago. I have the movie and adore it, so when I saw this book I was extremely excited. I was not let down. For all Filmmakers, for all aspiring Filmmakers, I recommend this book. It is Jean Cocteau's diary, or shall I say Director's Commentary, of the making of this film. If filmmakers think they have it hard making a good movie today because of the price, please read this book. It is about true dedication, true passion and true love for making movies, telling stories and bringing fairytales to life. After all, isn't bringing a movie to life every filmmakers fairytale? This book can teach you more than any film class can ever. Get this book and recommend it to everyone. Give it as a present to the aspiring filmmaker in your life. And after you're done reading it, let it soak in and never forget it (I won't). It is that GREAT!!!

Belle et la Bête
Absolutely fasinating. So many of my French teacher colleagues show this movie. They would find this "making of" so interesting.It is not a record of how he created the special effects, though he does discuss a few (the dvd shows many more), but rather all the trials the entire crew endured to create this seemingly effortless masterpiece.

Illuminating book
The book provides insights into the making of Cocteau's classic film.The incredible film obviously stands alone, but knowledge of the period and the various aspects and difficulties in making it adds to one's appreciation.

Suffering for his Art
Some have found Cocteau's litany of illnesses that he and others suffered while filming "Beauty and the Beast" tedious and skipped over them as seemingly irrelevant.Unfortunately, those who do so may miss the entire point of Cocteau's masochistic esthetic, namely, the necessity for the artist to suffer and triumph over all adversity for the sake of his art.That suffering is part and parcel of his art, suffering is art, just as "Beauty and the Beast" suffered during the filming and triumphed as a lasting work of art.Cocteau's suffering at the time mirrored the enormous technical difficulties encountered while making the film.The entire surreal struggle of Cocteau and of others involved in the film is wonderfully captured in his journal and any serious student of either Cocteau or the film will profit by reading it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Classic Tales By Cocteau
A magnificent collection of plays by Cocteau, this set includes Orpheus, Oedipus Rex, and a preposterous execution of Knights Of The Round Table. Most outstanding is the surreal Eiffel Tower, in which inanimate objects possess mortal properties, and subsequently performing a play within aplay. More comprehensive than what he put to film, nevertheless Cocteauwrites in a minimalist mark that makes this book a fast yet enjoyable read.Also check out the novels Les Enfant Terrible and Opium. ... Read more

Product Description
Jean Cocteau delighted in shocking the world. In pubic, at least, the image he presented was one of great daring -- a man eager to defy, willing to experiment, ready to challenge. Cocteau's achievements in almost every artistic medium -- including poetry, film, illustration, criticism, and ballet -- rightfully earned him a reputation for radical versatility. He assumed Oscar Wilde's role as "world's most dazzling talker" and Thomas DeQuincey's as "world's most conspicuous opium addict"; he drew depictions of his bouts in the all-male brothels of Toulon; he created the actor Jean Marais and the chanteuse Edith Piaf. But among Cocteau's many accomplishments was one composition protected by the private man: his diary.

Recorded during the last 13 years of his life, Cocteau's diary was kept a secret until 1983. this first of six projected volumes reveals Cocteau's life from 1951 to 1953. In it, he makes asides about Picasso, writes Oedipus rex, admires Stalin, travels through Europe, and engages in gross generalizations about Americans. With line drawings from Cocteau's original journal, Past Tense is a literary event -- a window into Cocteau's life and creativity as he wanted them to be remembered.
... Read more

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Great biography of a fascinating artist!
James Williams has done a brilliant job of explaining Cocteau's life and work primarily through the lens of Cocteau's relationships with male friends and lovers. Williams writes with great wit and insight, balancing his sometimes harsh judgments with empathy and understanding of the monumental contributions that this deeply divided but unceasingly creative individual made in virtually every medium -- but particularly in film.The book is beautifully and bountifully illustrated with drawings by Cocteau, film stills, and extremely interesting images of Cocteau himself. This is a deeply learned book that one can easily read for pleasure, as I did - I read the first chapter on a whim and then simply could not put it down. ... Read more

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[This book is written in French.]

Par Théâtre de poche il faut entendre théâtre mineur, des textes faciles à exécuter sur les planches où de jeunes talents pourront mettre en lumière un aspect dramatique de leur personnalité. Édités en 1955, ces textes laissent affleurer la personnalité si attachante de Cocteau: sa verve, son humour, son sens du clin d'oeil et du portrait.

The term "pocket theater" is to be understood as little theater, texts that are easy to perform on stages where young talents can focus on dramatic aspects of their personalities. Published in 1955, these texts allow Cocteau's engaging personality to come to the fore: his verve, his humor, his ability to wink an eye and paint a portrait. ... Read more