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Symbolism books
Symbolism books to start from. Open one to see books like it, or tell BookSense what you loved for four picks made for you.
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New to the genre? These 5 are the books to read first.
Les fleurs du mal
Charles BaudelaireIts poems link sensual surfaces to spiritual states, a key precursor of the movement.
Poèmes saturniens
Paul VerlaineEarly verse by Verlaine, valuing melancholy mood and musical sound over clear statement.
Le bateau ivre
Arthur RimbaudA poem of a runaway boat's voyage, built from dense, vivid and dreamlike images.
L'après-midi d'un faune
Stéphane MallarméA faun's drowsy reverie, a central text of the movement's concern with suggestion.
À rebours
Joris-Karl HuysmansA novel of one man's withdrawal into a private world of objects and sensations.
Chosen and described with AI from our notes on the genre.
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- Axël
AxëlAuguste comte de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam - Bruges-la-Morte
Bruges-la-MorteGeorges Rodenbach - Pelléas et Mélisande
Pelléas et MélisandeMaurice Maeterlinck - The Petty Demon
The Petty DemonFyodor Sologub - Petersburg
PetersburgAndrei Bely - The Twelve
The TwelveAleksandr Aleksandrovich Blok - Dream Psychology
Dream PsychologySigmund Freud2017 - Man and his symbols
Man and his symbolsCarl Gustav Jung1964 - The masks of God
The masks of GodJoseph Campbell1959 - V
VThomas Pynchon1963 - The Hearing Trumpet
The Hearing TrumpetLeonora Carrington1976 - A dictionary of symbols
A dictionary of symbolsJean Chevalier1969