2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Here it is, the treasure house., February 18, 2010
An anthology so rich and diverse I'm going to go ahead and call it "heroic". So much of this wouldn't be available anywhere, if not for this book. Mary Ann Caws has done dozens of fresh translations. It seemed incredible to sit at my table with my coffee and say, "Ah, now I'll read Andre Breton's letter to his daughter. . . now I'll look at facsimiles of Joseph Cornell's letters to Mina Loy and Marianne Moore. . . here is a picture of an elderly Picasso wearing a fireman's helmet. . . here are the poems of Robert Desnos and Paul Eluard and Malcolm de Chazal. The book is beautiful and fascinating and simply a lot of fun. I'm not a scholar or a historian -- this is a book to read for pleasure.
For example, here are 7 Things I Loved:
Giorgio de Chirico, an excerpt from his memoirs: "Although the Surrealists professed unadulterated communist and anti-bourgeois feelings they always tried to live as comfortably as possible, dress very well and eat excellent meals washed down with excellent wine; they never gave so much as a centime to a poor man, never lifted a finger in favor of someone who needed material or moral support and above all they worked as little as possible, or not at all." (p.29)
Louis Aragon, an excerpt from Paris Peasant: "Fearsome, charming whores, let others take to generalizing in their arms." "No museum could ever reconstruct you on the basis of your little dimpled hand." (p.75)
Antonin Artaud, an excerpt from "Van Gogh: The Man Suicided by Society": "He who does not smell of a smouldering bomb and of compressed vertigo is not worthy to be alive." "Only perpetual struggle explains a peace that is only transitory just as milk that is ready to be poured explains the kettle in which it has boiled." (p.106)
Leonora Carrington, the story "House of Fear": "But I'd forgotten that I could only count to ten, and even then I made mistakes. In a very short time, I'd counted to ten several times, and I'd gone completely astray. Trees surrounded me on all sides. 'I'm in a forest,' I said, and I was right." (p.149)
Arthur Cravan, from his Notes: "I am perhaps the king of failures because I'm certainly the king of something." (p.171)
Julien Gracq, "Ross' Barrier": "At such times we hugged each other so long and close that in the melted snow, a single gully was hollowed out, narrower than a baby's cradle, and, when we got up, the cover between the two teat-like mounds suggested Asiatic asses, saddled with snow and descending the mountain slopes." (p.231)
Marcel Marien, his gorgeous essay "Psychological Aspects of the Fourth Dimension": "For if one break, pierce, breach, split, or otherwise penetrate an object, it is not its interior that is thereby reached; in the new void created, new images are created, hitherto unknown surfaces are touched." (p.289)
And I haven't mentioned the poems of Mina Loy, or the portfolio of Dorothea Tanning paintings, or Joseph Cornell's dream journal or Breton's collaborations with Eluard, or the entirely incredible Meret Oppenheim.
There is so much here -- and so many writers I would never have found if not for this book. This expensive sturdy book is worth saving up for!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An impressive, far-reaching overview of Surrealism, August 19, 2008
I'm surprised that this rich volume hasn't been reviewed by anyone else so far, but I'll try to do it justice. Mary Ann Caws, who has written extensively about the Surrealists, has compiled a treasure trove of Surrealist art & writing in these pages, including work from many creators not immediately thought of as Surrealists. But as she demonstrates, the glowing thread of the marvellous runs through their creations as well.
"Surreal" has become an all-purpose word for "strange, different" these days, and many famous Surrealist images have become all too familiar, drained of their mystery & power, through commercial over-exposure. Caws makes us experience Surrealism anew, in all of its boundary-breaking freshness & startling beauty. She reminds us that it's not just one more useful form of graphic design, but a means of seeing through the mundane shell of the world, of discovering new & intricate connections between seemingly unrelated objects & ideas, and of burning away the dulling drabness of the everyday to experience a blazing, transforming new reality.
There's such a wide range of work collected here that you're sure to find something that speaks especially to you. And you'll find countless points of departure for further exploration of the Surreal. This isn't just an excellent introduction to Surrealism (although it's certainly all of that), but a work of art in itself. If the Surrealist mode of experience appeals to you, and you want to learn more about it, then this is the place to start. Most highly recommended!
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