SOURCE: Lawler, James R. “‘Not to Renounce’: René Char's Oeuvres complètes.” World Literature Today 58, no. 2 (spring 1984): 222-24.

In the following review, Lawler lauds the publication of René Char's Oeuvres complètes, explaining how the poet’s work “is not of easy access and demands the reader's active participation. The poem is this enigma that does not narrate or confide.”

The Pléiade René Char [Oeuvres complètes] is without any doubt a major literary event.¹ The edition, elegant in form and composition, shows the guiding hand of the poet himself. It brings together the fruit of his many collections that have appeared since 1926; presents pieces hitherto unpublished, including several written in the last few years; contains an admirable new dialogue on the practice of poetry. For a good number of texts there are useful, at times precious notes that explain an allusion by adducing a complementary passage...