Liberty or Love! and Mourning for Mourning - by Robert Desnos (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A literary masterpiece of early Surrealism from the virtuoso of automatic writing, Robert Desnos

Mystery, the marvelous, the city of Paris transmuted by love, and Sanglot the Corsair's pursuit of the siren Louise Lame: these are the essential ingredients of Liberty or Love!, a masterpiece of early Surrealism written by Robert Desnos (1900-1945) and first published in 1924 to immediate acclaim. Characters appear and disappear at whim; they walk underwater and accept the most astounding coincidences with calm nonchalance. This crown jewel of Surrealist eroticism is part hymn to the erotic and part adventure story illumined by the shades of Lautréamont, Jack the Ripper and Sade. Desnos was famously lauded by André Breton--in his First Manifesto of Surrealism--for having come "closest to the Surrealist truth," and his novel is a dream at once violent and tender--the perfect embodiment, in fact, of the Surrealist spirit: joyful and despairing, and effortlessly scandalous. This new hardback edition also includes Mourning for Mourning, Desnos' first book--his own selection of his early stories from the "period of sleeping fits" and automatic writing.

From the Back Cover

"In those days, my door was open to mystery". So speaks the hero of Desnos' novel: Sanglot the Corsair. Mystery, the marvellous, a city transmuted by love, Sanglot's pursuit of the siren Louise Lame, such are the essential ingredients of this the last masterpiece of early Surrealism to remain untranslated into English. It was originally published in 1924 to immediate and lasting acclaim - except from the public authorities who immediately censored whole sections (here restored). Impossible to describe a novel of such virtuosity and bravura, and one which consistently refuses to behave as one expects, characters appear and vanish according to whim or desire, they walk underwater, nonchalantly accept astounding coincidences. It's a hymn to the erotic, an adventure story darkly illumined by the shades of Sade, Lautreamont and Jack the Ripper, a dream both violent and tender, an obsession, in fact the perfect embodiment of the Surrealist spirit: at once joyful, despairing, and effortlessly scandalous.