London during the mid- and late-Victorian period was a place of refuge from the tensions of France. In this book, originally published in 1974, Cecily Mackworth writes about four outstanding French poets who came to England at that time. Mallarmé, Verlaine, Paul Valéry and Valery Larbaud each discovered England at a period when great changes were taking place in Anglo-French relations and especially between the intellectuals of the two countries. Each was marked indelibly in his life and work by an early contact with England. The book sheds important light on the effect of these visits on their life and work. It looks at their visits against the background of the French colony in London, and in relation to the changing intellectual attitudes between France and England.
