Philippe Soupault

Last Nights Of Paris

André Breton

(Les Champs magnétiques)

The Magnetic Fields

Paul Eluard

The most famous literary experiments conducted by the surrealist group in Paris in its early days were centred around the idea of Automatic Writing'. This book collects together the two most important texts produced using this method: 'The Magnetic Fields' and 'The Immaculate Conception'. They are prefaced by an essay by Breton which discusses the issues raised by automatism, its history and potential.'

The Magnetic Fields ; The Immaculate Conception

The Automatic Message

SoupaultPhilippe

Philippe Audoin

Suivi de S'il vous plaît et de Vous m'oublierez

Les Champs magnétiques

Las últimas Noches de París

""Elle n'aimait que la nuit qu'elle semblait épouser chaque soir, et son allure même ne devenait réelle que lorsqu'elle s'éloignait de la lumière pour pénétrer dans l'obscurité. Elle était la nuit même et sa beauté était nocturne.""

Les dernières nuits de Paris

The first Surrealist book - it's use of 'automatic writing' makes it a seminal work in the literature of the 20th century.

contes

Le roi de la vie

Andre Breton

An indispensible classic of French poetry, this is a new translation of Breton and Soupault's experiment with automatic writing, and also the first known work of literary surrealism. In the spring of 1919, two young men, André Breton and Philippe Soupault, both in a state of shock after World War I, embarked on an experiment. Sick of the literary cultivation of “voice,” sick of the “well-written,” they wanted to unleash the power of the word and to create “a new morality” to replace “the prevailing morality, the source of all our trials and tribulations.” They had a plan. They would write for a week on every day of the week and they would write fast, as fast as possible, in complete secrecy. When the week was over, the writing would be done. No touching up. This was how The Magnetic Fields, the first sustained exercise in automatic writing, came to be. Charlotte Mandell’s brilliant new translation reveals a key work of twentieth-century literature.

Voyage d'Horace Pirouelle

By Philippe Soupault. Translated by William Carlos Williams.

Last Nights of Paris

Paul Éluard

Jon E. Graham

This book collects together the two most vital "automatic" texts Surrealism. Breton's prefatory essay The Automatic Message relates this technique to the underlying concepts and aesthetic of the Surrealist movement. The Magnetic Fields (1919) was the first work of literary Surrealism and is thus one of the foundations of modern European thought and writing. This authorised translation is by the poet David Gascoyne, himself a member of the group and a friend of both authors. The Immaculate Conception (1930) traces the interior and exterior life of man from Conception and Intra-Uterine Life to Death and The Original Judgement. The central section is a celebrated series of "simulations" of various types of mental instability.

Philippe Soupault

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