Free Rein

Free Rein is a gathering of seminal essays by André Breton, the foremost figure among the French surrealists. Written between 1936 and 1952, they include addresses, manifestoes, prefaces, exhibition pamphlets, and theoretical, polemical, and lyrical essays. Together they display the full span of Breton's preoccupations, his abiding faith in the early principles of surrealism, and the changing orientations, in light of crucial events of those years, of the surrealist movement within which he remained the leading force.

Having broken decisively with Marxism in the mid-1930s, Breton repeatedly addresses the horrors of the Stalinist regime (which denounced him during the Moscow trials of 1936). He argues for the autonomy of art and poetry and condemns the subservience to "revolutionary" aims exemplified by socialist realism. Other articles reflect on aesthetic issues, cinema, music, and education and provide detailed meditations on the literary, artistic, and philosophical topics for which he is best known. Free Rein will prove indispensable for students of Breton, surrealism, and modern French and European culture.

Author: Andre Breton
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 03/01/1996
Pages: 293
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.52lbs
Size: 9.60h x 6.38w x 1.18d
ISBN: 9780803212411

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 03/15/1996 pg. 415
Library Journal 06/15/1996 pg. 64

About the Author
Michel Parmentier is a professor of French at Bishop's University, Québec. He is the author of Mise au point and Regards contemporains: Textes d'actualité québécoise. He is coauthor with Jacqueline d'Amboise of Second Regards, Récits récents, and Nouvelles nouvelles: Fictions du Québec contemporain. Jacqueline d'Amboise is an independent poet and translator. She is the author of Mother Myths, a book of poems.