With this important work Gascoyne was able to introduce some of the 20th century's most exciting and experimental authors (and painters) to new audiences outside France. Gascoyne's table of contents listing his translations of some of these new works he has included in his survey reads like a who's who of the Surrealist (and Dada) movement: Andre Breton, Rene Char, Salvador Dali, Paul Eluard, Georges Hugnet, Benjamin Peret, and Tristan Tzara. Gascoyne's description of the movement and its key players is a lucid introduction to the complexities of the movement, and his selection of readings provides the best examples of Surrealist poetry and prose from that time. In the final chapter, ""Surrealism Today and Tomorrow,"" he writes: ""It is my hope that the reader will have realized by now that Surrealism is not simply a way of writing or painting, but a school of thought that may very well be playing a role of historical importance.
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About the Author
'... Grant us extraordinary grace, O Spirit hidden in the dark in us and deep, And bring to light the dream out of our sleep.' from 'Kyrie' (Selected Poems) David Gascoyne's death in November 2001 was marked by the lead obituaries in all the British broadsheets as well as in Le Monde. As a poet and translator he had been internationally renowned since the 1930s. He was the first chronicler in English of the Surrealist movement, and an essayist and reviewer of dazzling range. His association with Enitharmon Press dates back to 1970 and in the past decade there have been eight publications which will be a lasting testament of his importance. ALSO BY DAVID GASCOYNE Selected Poems Selected Prose 1934-1996 Selected Verse Translations
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
An insider's view of surrealism during the heroic period,
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This review is from: A Short Survey of Surrealism (Paperback)
This book, along with Desnos' "Liberty or Love" and Soupault's "The Last Nights of Paris", is probably one of the most important texts on the Surrealist movement of the 1930's from the perspective of not only a member, but a president of the club--Gascoyne would later, with his "Journals" and a handful of interviews he gave, be one of the only impartial critics of the movement as it existed during a period of legendary poetic discovery.
On the other hand, for enthusiasts of David Gascoyne's work itself apart from the Surrealist influence, this may be a bit disappointing. Gascoyne was young when he wrote this and was still a little naive about the red tape he would encounter later with Breton and the gang, being a Catholic and having some strength of personality. I was actually surprised that in this text he backed up Breton's Second Manifesto, which ultimately destroyed the movement by ejecting its most valuable members. Later on he would say of Breton: "He was a Trotskyist and you didn't argue with him for long. All the same, Breton was to Surrealism what Freud was to Psychoanalysis." The youthful naivete notwithstanding, Gascoyne's feverish passion for all things rebellious and surreal makes you feel as though you are there with him in the streets of Paris when the spirit of Rimbaud and Lautreamont were resurrected by a few men who got sick of war, drudgery, and society's determination to make everything banal.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Short Survey of Surrealism,
This review is from: A Short Survey of Surrealism (Paperback)
David Gascoyne's classsic text of 1935 was the first comprehensive work on Surrealism to be published in English. His membership of the Surrealist movement and his association with its leading members - among them Andre Breton, Paul Eluard, Mac Ernst, and Salvador Dali - placed him in an ideal position to witness and record the development and significance of its foremost writers and artists. David Gascoyne lived in France in 1937-39, 1947-8 and 1953-64, during which time he became one of the most distinguished of British poets and translators. He now lives on the Isle of Wight. --- from book's back cover
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