The Lost Steps (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780803228146)

The Lost Steps (Les Pas perdus) is André Breton's first collection of critical and polemical essays. Composed between 1917 and 1923, these pieces trace his evolution during the years when he was emerging as a central figure in French (and European) intellectual life. They chronicle his tumultuous passage through the Dada movement, proclaim his explosive views on Modernism and its heroes, and herald the emergence of Surrealism itself. Along the way, we are given Breton's serious commentaries on his Modernist predecessors, Guillaume Apollinaire and Alfred Jarry, followed by his not-so-serious Dada manifestoes.

Also included are portraits of Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, and Breton's mysterious friend Jacques Vaché, as well as a crisis-by-crisis account of his dealing with Dada's leader, Tristan Tzara. Finally, Breton offers a first glimpse of Surrealism, the movement that was forever after identified with his name and that stands as a defining force in twentieth-century aesthetics.

Author: André Breton
ISBN-10: 0803228147
ISBN-13: 9780803228146
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Language: English
Published: 01/01/2010
Pages: 160
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.40lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.00w x 0.38d