Surreal Lives: The Surrealists 1917-1945 [Hardcover]

Ruth Brandon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1999

In the years following World War I, a small group of writers, painters, and filmmakers called the Surrealists set out to change the way we perceive the world. In Surreal Lives, Ruth Brandon follows the lives and interactions of such firecracker minds as the movement's didactic "Pope", Andre Breton and the ambitious and manic Salvador Dali, as well as Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, Tristan Tzara, Man Ray, Max Ernst, and filmmaker Luis Bunuel. It charts the shifting allegiances, such muses and patrons as Gala Dali and Peggy Guggenheim. Ruth Brandon spins the many stories of Surrealism with wit, energy, and insight, bringing sharp analysis to an eccentric cast of characters whose struggles and achievements came to mirror and define the way the world changed between the wars.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Playful, amusing, frivolous, and bizarre. As Ruth Brandon points out in the preface to her marvelous Surreal Lives, surrealism has passed into everyday life as a byword for the strange. However, as this wonderfully exhaustive book point outs, the intellectual and political drive behind the movement was in fact highly revolutionary. What Brandon proceeds to unfold is a kaleidoscopic cultural history of the movement, which by 1924 had self-consciously adopted the title "surrealism," from its emergence in the midst of the ashes of interwar Zurich dada to its enforced relocation to New York in the 1940s. Along the way Surreal Lives deftly weaves a fascinating account of the cultural, artistic, political, personal, and sexual dynamics of the men and women who defined the movement from the 1920s onward.

The personal and artistic connections between the usual suspects of Apollinaire, Picabia, Man Ray, Duchamp, Buñuel, and Dalí are all traced in extensive and highly entertaining detail. And at the book's center lies the pompous, autocratic, charismatic figure of André Breton and his creative but highly volatile relations with the entire cast--from his feuds with Tristan Tzara to his ultimate disillusion with Dalí. Following Breton's enigmatic career, the book moves beautifully between the revolutionary aspirations of the movement and the endemic literary squabbles that often blunted its radicalism. Brandon is particularly successful at uncovering the importance of the various women who had such a decisive impact upon the development of surrealism, as well as offering a range of salacious and often wonderfully incongruous encounters, such as the aged Erik Satie's involvement in the creation of Marcel Duchamp's The Gift. How surreal. --Jerry Brotton, Amazon.co.uk

From Publishers Weekly

"Jacques Vach? is the Surrealist in me." So said Andr? Breton of his compatriot, dead from drug abuse in 1919, well before the heyday of the official movement that Breton came to run like a political party. Vach?, a man who created virtually no artwork, embodied the surrealist ideal that one's life itself should be a work of art. Brandon (Uncertainty Principle; Singer and the Sewing Machine)Aentranced by these artists' dadaist outrages, political radicalism, flirtations with Stalin, psychic seances and sexual debaucheryAfinds the search for this ideal more compelling than any art objects, poetry or manifestos left behind along the way. The narrative focuses on the most sensational behavior of this disparate group of avant-gardists; at times, it has the breathless feel of a rock-star bio, paying considerable attention to outrageous, backstabbing disputes and wife-swapping affairs. Her interpretations of their art are swift and punchy to a fault, however. Of Duchamp's infamous "readymade" urinal, Brandon says: "In Art's very own sanctum Mr Mutt pissed on the notion of Art." And she misses key connections. Brandon herself suggests that Vach? may well have modeled himself on Gide's character Lafcadio. Later, she dismisses Arthur Cravan as a "simplified and brutalized" version of Vach?. She then provides evidence that Cravan may have been Gide's model for LafcadioAand yet, she never directly comments on this Escher-like circle of influence. Despite such drawbacks, this account of the flawed and ambitious group of surrealists is enthralling, for despite their many failures, the questions the surrealists sought to raise are more relevant today than ever. Illus. not seen by PW. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 527 pages
• Publisher: Grove Pr; 1St Edition edition (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802116531
• ISBN-13: 978-0802116536
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,159,333 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sketches without commentary, January 29, 2000

By 

Matthew L. Moffett - See all my reviews

This review is from: Surreal Lives: The Surrealists 1917-1945 (Hardcover)

An interesting but not overly amazing look at one of the most misunderstood art movements of the 20th century. Brandon's work functions mainly as a collection of biograpical sketches of the major players of the movement. Forerunners like Tzara, Duchamp, Ducasse are given a fair ammount of time, as are Breton (of course) and Soupault. Other important players are quickly glossed over, like Eluard, Desnos and Peret. Far too much time is given to Dali; although a talented man, he spent very little time with the group.

Brandon's conclusions and insights are few; the one of most interest is that of Breton continually searching for the ultimate anti-artist he found and lost in his friend Vache and could never fulfill himself. This book would be a nice introduction to someone not too familiar with the movement and could act as a good jumping platform towards studying the specific artists that interest the reader most. The writing is clear, and what is explained is done well. More knowledgable readers, however, should move on to other things.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Avoid This One Like The Plague, April 22, 2000

By 

Chad Witt - See all my reviews

This review is from: Surreal Lives: The Surrealists 1917-1945 (Hardcover)

I've never read such a sloppy account of the Surrealists... Ruth Brandon's book is littered with errors and omissions of all sorts. Surreal Lives also suffers from any sense of strong narrative. Brandon leaves out so much that was important to the movement, esp. in the so called 'Heroic Period,' the early days of the movement. She attributes quotes to the wrong people... To name just one thing...

The most unforgivable sin is even though it's supopsed to be about everyone in the movement, it's Breton heavy and doesn't at all write about the striking discoveries being produced and imagined by others at the same time. To me this is a cheap, bloated, cut and paste attempt at history. And shameful because she seemingly dismisses so many important people in the movement (Benjamin Peret, to name just one) with almost no mention at all.

Oddly enough, Mark Polizzotti's biography of Bretion, Revolution of the Mind: The Life of Andre Breton - is THE best, most COMPLETE and COMPELLING history of the WHOLE movement. Please, don't waste your money on the Brandon book - buy the Polizzotti. He makes you feel as if you were there with all those people, while Brandon's tome feels like she sat at a huge desk, littered with books (incl. the Polizzotti one, which she cannibalizes - along with tons of other sources) and made a collage, which just doesn't work at all. Through and through a totally boring account - which was in life so exciting. She made me feel absolutely nothing about people I've revered since my teens. It's cold and totally passionless. Ironic - since those are two qualities the Surrealists themselves abhorred.

This book is awful, riddled with errors and totally boring. I just wanted this review to be a warning. This IS NOT a complete or even good account of the Surrealists! Please - don't wate your money. Buy the Polizzotti - then you'll be dazzled and amazed and completely enlightened and entertained.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping, insightful and hugely enjoyable, January 29, 2011

By 

Alan Murphy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Surreal Lives: The Surrealists 1917-1945 (Paperback)

I can't believe the bad things that have been said about this book here. John Banville described it as "Wonderful" and it is. It grips from beginning to end and ia always engaging and insightful. It gives generous coverage to some of the surrealists at the expense of others but as some evidently had lives that were more outwardly dramatic than others this is excusable. It may not be definitive but it could well be the most entertaining book written on the subject.