From Publishers Weekly
Many French intellectuals who stayed in France greeted surrealist Breton's musings written from the near arctic reaches of Canada with some resentment when they first appeared in 1945. In fact, the book, although not one of his greatest works, may well have more resonance with contemporary audiences with its archetypes, goddesses, concern for nature and overall mystical bent. Like L'amour fou or Nadja , much of Arcanum 17 is a meditation on love but a tender lasting love for the concrete, rather tragic Elisa Bindhoff. Half-hidden among the dreams, soliloquys and recollections is the book's real purpose--to question the very way of being that had brought the world to such a horrible pass. Among the givens Breton calls on the carpet are logic, morality, time, death and most of all, masculine supremacy--"This crisis is so severe that I, myself, see only one solution: the time has come to value the ideas of woman at the expense of those of man, whose bankruptcy is coming to pass fairly tumultuously today." As Rogow points out in his helpful preface, the book's title is taken from the tarot, Arcanum 17 being the 17th card or star card, the signifier of renewal. Hints of the old interests (alchemy) and newer ones (Native American culture) mingle into a fluid and dynamic work by one of the most influential thinkers of the century.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Arcanum 17- a tarot card, called The Star, that is the 17th card in the Major Arcana- depicts a woman pouring superlunary forces into a mundane world. Analogic, decidedly feminist, and ahead of his time, Breton wrote this hymn of hope, renewal, and resurrection in the summer and fall of 1944 in Sainte Agathe in Gaspe, near Perce Rock where Breton joyfully vacationed with Elisa, who would become his third wife. His second wife, Jacqueline Lamba, had abandoned him, taking with her his beloved daughter. Thus, the poet saw a parallel between his own broken life and a war-ravaged Europe. But the solid, weather-beaten Perce Rock reminds him that nature renews herself and that death is only transitory. Appended in 1947, this book advocates a new internationalism to prevent war. Rogow's translation conveys Breton's enthusiasm and hope. Uplifting reading if the reader can appreciate Breton's analogic style.
Bob Ivey, Memphis State Univ.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
