AustLit

'Jan Owen writes of childhood and nature, of relationships, travel, art and science. Many poems in The Offhand Angel shuttle between widely differing perspectives: the local and the exotic, the cosmic and the microcosmic, the physical and the metaphysical. A sense of transience and loss is balanced by the sensuousness and musicality of her work, and by a driving curiosity about the world.' (Publication summary)

'The poems of The Flowers of Evil were written in Paris at a time of revolution and accelerating change - the beginning of mass culture, the rise of consumerism and the middle-class, the radical redevelopment of the city by Haussmann - and they provide many parallels with the malaise and uncertainties of contemporary capitalist societies. Here we find poems about love (and love-hate), birds and beasts, Paris scenes and street people; about spiritual revolt, wine, death, travel and far-away places. The poet's voice is by turns ironical, angry and compassionate, his words charged with anguish, desire and rapture. Jan Owen's masterly translation captures all of this in a selection that includes many of Baudelaire's best known poems - including those banned from 1857 edition - as well as some less familiar ones, with the volume leading up to his great long poem, 'The Voyage', and finishing with the much-loved sonnet 'Meditation'.' (Publication summary)