Stéphane Mallarmé

(1842 - 1898)

Along with Paul Verlaine, Stéphane Mallarmé was the originator and a leading practitioner of the Symbolist poetry movement. He published his dramatic poem “The Afternoon of a Faun” in 1865, providing inspiration for Claude Debussy’s prelude of the same name in 1894. J.-K. Huysmans’ glowing portrait of Mallarmé in Against Nature buttressed his reputation as one the foremost poets in France.