Mourning for Mourning

by Robert Desnos, Terry Hale (Translator), Georges Malkine (Illustrator)

Desnos’ own selection of his early stories from Surrealist fairy-tales from The Period of Sleeping-Fits. “Desnos more than any of us got closest to the Surrealist truth,” wrote André Breton in the first Manifesto of Surrealism (1924): “He speaks Surrealist at will.” Mourning for Mourning was published the same year, it was Desnos’s first book. This was during the early experimental period of Surrealism - the period of Sleeping-fits, of the investigation of the subconscious through dream and trance states and through automatic writing. Robert Desnos proved to be the most gifted practitioner. So gifted, indeed, that the trance sessions had to be discontinued after various disturbing on one occasion he tried to stab Paul Eluard, on another he was discovered attempting to persuade other members of the group to hang themselves.This is the first English translation of Deuil pour Deuil.

61 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1924

About the author

Robert Desnos (4 July 1900 – 8 June 1945) was a French surrealist poet who played a key role in the Surrealist movement of his day.

Reviews

[Jack Burnham]

Awash with images of longings, cosmic wanderings, vaguely murderous intentions, failed revolutions, amorphous identities and one of the most startling and memorable train journeys in any novel

[Nate D]

via The Automatic Muse: Surrealist Novels. A vaguely connected vignette sequence that sparkles with Desnos' weird coherence within the automatic and random.