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André Breton (1896–1966)

Author of Nadja

164+ Works 5,612 Members 41 Reviews 16 Favorited

About the Author

Andre Breton was born in Normandy, France on 19, 1896 and died on September 28, 1966. Breton was a poet, novelist, philosophical essayist, and art critic. He is considered to be the father of surrealism. From World War I to the 1940s, Breton was at the forefront of the numerous avant-garde show more activities that centered in Paris. Breton's influence on the art and literature of the twentieth century has been enormous. Picasso, Derain, Magritte, Giacometti, Cocteau, Eluard, and Gracq are among the many whose work was affected by his thinking. From 1927 to 1933, Breton was a member of the Communist party, but thereafter he opposed communism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto (Manifeste du surréalisme) of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism". He also wrote Nadja in 1928. Breton died in 1966 at 70 and was buried in the Cimetière des Batignolles in Paris. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: André Breton par Man Ray en 1930

Series

Works by André Breton

Nadja (1928) 2,032 copies
Manifestoes of Surrealism (1924) 851 copies
Mad Love (1937) 470 copies
Anthology of Black Humor (1940) 352 copies
Arcanum 17 (1945) 208 copies
The Magnetic Fields (1971) 168 copies
Surrealism and Painting (1945) 102 copies
Communicating Vessels (1967) 101 copies
Earthlight (1993) 74 copies
The Lost Steps (1949) 66 copies
André Breton: Selections (2003) 49 copies
The Immaculate Conception (1930) 43 copies
Selected Poems (1969) 43 copies
Free Rein (1976) 38 copies
Signe ascendant (1968) 37 copies
Break of Day (1970) 32 copies
El arte mágico (1957) 28 copies
Clair de terre 23 copies
Ralentir Travaux: Slow Under Construction (1989) — Author — 23 copies
Ode to Charles Fourier (1969) 19 copies
Andre Breton: Dossier Dada (2006) 16 copies
Breton : Oeuvres complètes, tome 1 (1988) — Author — 15 copies
André Breton par lui-même (1971) 13 copies
Poisson soluble (1996) 12 copies
Man Ray 1890-1976 (1994) 11 copies
La Révolution surréaliste (1975) 10 copies
Magia cotidiana (1970) 10 copies
Fata Morgana (1982) 9 copies
Œuvres complètes (2008) — Author — 9 copies
Poesie (1977) 8 copies
Breton : Oeuvres complètes, tome 2 (1992) — Author — 7 copies
Trébol de cuatro hojas (1985) 7 copies
Breton : Oeuvres complètes, tome 3 (1999) — Author — 5 copies
Antologia (1994) 5 copies
Auf frischer Tat (1984) 5 copies
Point du jour 3 copies
La unión libre 3 copies
Je vois, j'imagine (1991) 3 copies
Poèmes (2016) 3 copies
Dalí intime (2004) 2 copies
Omvej over himlen (1996) 2 copies
Yves Tanguy (1946) 2 copies
L'Oeuvre au clair : Nadja (2003) 2 copies
Toyen 2 copies
Poésie : Breton (1996) 1 copy
等角投像 1 copy
Breton: Selected Poems (1969) 1 copy
POINT DU JOUR (1970) 1 copy
Cardenas (2013) 1 copy
Spojité nádoby (1996) 1 copy
Poèmes 1 copy
Man Ray 1 copy
Fleury Joseph Crepin (2000) 1 copy
nadja 1 copy
Le voleur 1 copy

Associated Works

Against Forgetting: Twentieth-Century Poetry of Witness (1993) — Contributor — 333 copies
Surrealist Love Poems (2001) — Contributor — 94 copies
Surrealist Painters and Poets: An Anthology (2001) — Contributor — 67 copies
Modern French Theatre (1964) — Contributor — 66 copies
The Shadow and its Shadow (1978) — Contributor — 63 copies
The Dedalus Book of Surrealism, I: The Identity of Things (1656) — Contributor — 58 copies
The Council of Love: A Celestial Tragedy in Five Acts (1895) — Introduction, some editions — 52 copies
The Dedalus Book of Surrealism, II: The Myth of the World (1994) — Contributor — 38 copies
One World of Literature (1992) — Contributor — 24 copies
Manifestos d'avantguarda : antologia (1995) — Contributor — 13 copies
Big Table 2 (1959) — Contributor — 10 copies
Locus Solus II (1961) — Contributor — 3 copies
Profil d'une œuvre. Nadja, André Breton (1972) — Contributor — 2 copies
Il cinema d'avanguardia 1910 - 1930 (1983) — Author — 1 copy
André Breton (1998) — Contributor — 1 copy
Profil d'une oeuvre : Nadja, André Breton (2002) — Contributor — 1 copy
ロートレアモン論 (1970年) (1970) — Contributor — 1 copy
現代詩手帖 2017年 03 月号 (2017) — Contributor — 1 copy

Tagged

1001 (29) 1001 books (25) 20th century (131) aesthetics (28) Andre Breton (43) anthology (158) art (312) art criticism (27) art history (93) art theory (54) Breton (51) criticism (24) dada (28) essay (36) essays (43) fiction (261) France (138) French (194) French literature (245) French poetry (27) history (30) humor (34) literature (174) modern art (34) modernism (50) non-fiction (66) novel (64) Paris (29) philosophy (45) poetry (477) poetry anthology (29) politics (22) read (46) Roman (23) surrealism (733) surrealist (27) theory (39) to-read (285) translation (47) unread (26)

Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Breton, André
Legal name
Breton, André
Other names
Dobrant, René (Pseudonyme)
Birthdate
1896-02-19
Date of death
1966-09-28
Burial location
Cimetière des Batignolles, Paris, France
Gender
male
Nationality
France
Country (for map)
France
Birthplace
Tinchebray, Orne, Normandy, France
Place of death
Paris, France
Places of residence
Paris, France
New York, New York, USA
Canada
Education
Hôpital du Val-de-Grâce (Auditeur, Médecine Auxilliaire, 1917 | 1921)
Lycée Chaptal, Paris
Occupations
poet
writer
Surrealist
essayist
art critic
journal editor
Relationships
Kahn, Simone (ex-wife)
Claro, Elisa (wife)
Lamba, Jacqueline (ex-wife)
Tzara, Tristan (colleague)
Prassinos, Gisèle (protege)
Elleouet, Aube (daughter) (show all 7)
Vaché, Jacques (author)
Organizations
Mouvement surréaliste (Fondateur, 19 19)
Littérature, Revue littéraire (Co-fondateur, 19 19)
Maison de couture Jacques Doucet (Conseiller, 19 21)
Contre-attaque, Revue littéraire (Co-fondateur, 19 35 | 19 36)
Armée française, WW1 (Artilleur, puis personnel de santé, 19 15 | 19 19)
Parti communiste français (1913 | 1935) (show all 7)
La Révolution surréaliste (1924)
Short biography
André Breton was born in Tinchebray, Normandy, France. His parents were Marguerite-Marie-Eugénie and Louis-Justin Breton, a policeman. Breton attended medical school, where he developed a particular interest in mental illness. His education was interrupted when he was drafted into the French army in World War I; he served as a nurse in the medical corps. In 1919, with Louis Aragon and Philippe Soupault, he founded the review Littérature. He became one of the original members of the Dada group. He published his first Surrealist Manifesto in 1924, and was editor of the journal La Révolution surréaliste from that year on. Influenced by his reading of Sigmund Freud and by Symbolist poetry, Breton is credited with pioneering automatism, the spontaneous act of writing, drawing, or painting as a means to elucidate unconscious thought. The Surrealist movement eventually became involved in the political ferment of the 1930s. During this time, Breton and several colleagues joined the Communist Party. His second Surrealist manifesto, published in 1930, was highly controversial among his fellow artists and writers. Breton broke with the Communist Party in 1935, but remained committed to Marxist ideals. In 1938, he accepted a commission from the French government to travel to Mexico. This provided him with the opportunity to meet Leon Trotsky, Diego Rivera, and Frida Kahlo. Together with Trotsky, Breton wrote the Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art. He served again in the medical corps of the French Army at the start of World War II. His writings were banned by the Vichy government and Breton escaped from France in 1941 with the help of the Emergency Rescue Committee volunteers led by Varian Fry. After a detour in the Caribbean, Breton emigrated to the USA and lived in New York City for a few years. In 1942, he organized a groundbreaking Surrealist exhibition at Yale University. He traveled to the Gaspé Peninsula in Québec, Canada, where he wrote Arcane 17 (1944), one of the key works of Surrealism, which expressed his fears of war. In 1946, after the end of WWII, Breton returned to France, where he produced another Surrealist exhibition the following year. He was a prolific author who published some 60 volumes of poetry, literary criticism, and anthologies.

Members

Reviews

I really struggled with my brain capacity, but I let it wash over me. A manifesto, even if he ended up taking like three or more attempts in the end, can never truly capture the scope and spirit of something like surrealism. But Breton does he's thing, so good on him.

The last paragraph that everyone posts is am absolute banger!
 
Flagged
RatGrrrl | 3 other reviews | Dec 20, 2023 |
Libro tanto affascinante quanto difficile e inestricabile, soprattutto se non si padroneggia il francese. E tuttavia potente nell'incastro di parole e immagini e - soprattutto - memorabile nelle sue più note dichiarazioni di intenti sull'opera d'arte.
 
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d.v. | 4 other reviews | May 16, 2023 |
Il mio rapporto con la realtá é sempre stato complicato. Ho avuto spesso momenti in cui ho guardato con diffidenza gli specchi. Momenti in cui non mi sento piú sola in casa. Le pareti piene di sagome, voci dappertutto. La realtá mi si presenta in enigma. In Nadja ritrovo le stesse sensazioni.

Col tempo ho trovato un leggero equilibrio in queste sovrapposizioni di realtá e mi sono messa alla ricerca di libri in cui il surreale sconvolge il mondo dei personaggi.

Nadja (1928), il secondo libro pubblicato da André Breton, è una delle opere simbolo del movimento surrealista francese. Inizia con la domanda "Chi sono io?" e termina con "la bellezza sarà convulsa o non sarà”… (more)
 
Flagged
HelloB | 14 other reviews | Apr 11, 2023 |
Hard to figure:

On the moidore' landings in the smashed waffle-iron where the
bismuth crystallizes

(And so it goes...Illustrations are definitely cool!)
 
Flagged
m.belljackson | 1 other review | Oct 6, 2022 |

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Works
164
Also by
28
Members
5,612
Popularity
#4,421
Rating
½ 3.7
Reviews
41
ISBNs
323
Languages
19
Favorited
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