ÉVARISTE DE PARNY

Poetry

Évariste de Parny can lay claim to have introduced the prose poem in 1787 into the French language via his collection of Malagasy Songs, purportedly a translation of the hainteny prose poems of Madagascar. Born on Reunion, he was educated in France but after leaving the seminary returned to Reunion, then worked for the government of Pondicherry before returning to France to settle down in Feuillancourt to write.
The Flowerdew Press is publishing the Malagasy Songs in a mimotype of the edition illustrated by J.E. Laboureur.