The Hundred Headless Woman

by Max Ernst, André Breton (Foreword)

Originally published in Paris in 1929, this collage novel by avant-gardist Max Ernst constitutes a seminal 20th-century work of art. The artist's striking combinations of engravings from Victorian-era books and magazines, accompanied by enigmatic captions, offer a universe of mystery replete with all the possibilities of the bizarre dream world of the surreal. Images speak, language illustrates, and the reader's imagination provides the glue.
"Irrational, violent, tender, ironic, Max Ernst has invoked the whole kaleidoscope of human phenomena in these collages ... [turning them] into stunning proposals for adventure," noted this volume's translator, Dorothea Tanning. The Hundred Headless Woman was the first of Ernst's collage novels, and its classic status ensures a place in modern art history classes. Every visit and re-visit to its pages tells a different story, an endlessly fascinating tale that runs an emotional gamut from keen humor to outright horror.

Genres: Art, Fiction, Comics, Graphic Novels, Germany, Poetry, Literature

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1929

About the author

Max Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet, considered one of the chief representatives of Dadaism and Surrealism.

Reviews

[Glenn Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is German artist Max Ernst's collage-novel. He beckons us to provide our own personal interpretation to the captions and surreal collages he constructed from old picture books and journal so that we create our own version of the story. I did exactly that – and created my own micro fiction below:

-----

Black Collage

I’m constructing a Max Ernst-like collage out of last night’s dream. Here are the pieces: a room, a toilet bowl, a boy named Danny who has one red eye and one green eye, a menacing black-hooded figure and a host of animals: opossum, Tasmanian devil, wallaby, aardvark, baboon, rabbit, mallard, chameleon, bullfrog and snake.

The dream consists of the following: Danny walks into a room with a toilet bowl at one end and all those animals, stacked one on top of another like a totem pole at the other.

“I would really like to have a pet,” shouts Danny.

Hearing his wish, the animals flee – fly, run and crawl straight for the toilet bowl. All the animals escape except one – Danny catches the mallard by its rump feathers just as it is about to disappear down the plumbing. Not wishing to be converted to pet status, the mallard plays possum, closing its eyes and flattening itself out like a rug. At this point the hooded figure enters and accuses Danny of engaging in tasteless black humor.


Now for the collage: I place Danny in the middle giving him grasping, outstretched hands. Since I’m working like Max Ernst, that is, constructing a collage in black-and-white, I attempt to convey the bizarreness of Danny’s eyes by giving him the eyes of a fly. I then paste the baboon, wallaby, rabbit, aardvark and snake beyond Danny’s grasp and position the toilet bowl at the bottom with a string of other animals – opossum, chameleon, bullfrog and finally the mallard – heading its way.

The one in the hood goes at the very top of the collage. As for his comment about black humor, I think it only appropriate to give this menacing figure the head of a Tasmanian devil. With such an absurd head, let’s see how seriously anybody takes his comment about bad taste.

[Tony Vacation · Rating 5 out of 5]

An utterly inscrutable work of surreal magnificence. A single go through these pages does no justice to the grisly sexual, hauntingly absurd and mindbogglingly arranged artwork, nor the enigmatic yet evocative text that accompanies every image. Give up your notions of narrative at the door, this is a work meant for a lifetime of lingering visits.

[Nate D]

Another brilliantly strange Max Ernst construction of old pulp novel illustrations and visionary dream-assemblage. Now with "explanatory" captions, this is somehow both more and less intelligible than the other Ernst collage-novel I've read. Either way it's totally inspiring and mysterious.

[Donald Armfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The eye without eyes, the hundred headless woman keeps her secret"

A collage novel, and plan on finding more like it.

Weird surrealism, Dada......A new style of reading that I can't get enough of.

[Max Nemtsov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Наконец-то три протографических псевдоромана моего любимого художника. Комиксами назвать их язык не поворачивается, конечно, это скорее романы в иронических и саркастических коллажах, но и причудливые сюжеты, и бездна своей поэтики в них имеются. А уж идей и вдохновения там хватит на сотни томов авторов поблеклее, не говоря о таком выхлопе человеческого сознания, как мемы. Из славных продолжателей Эрнста можно назвать Дона Б.

[Jeff Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Max Ernst's first collage novel and you can feel him straining to create this new language. The illustrations feel more rudimentary and the narrative is less coherent than his later illustrated books, but there are still plenty of jaw-dropping visuals and mind-scrambling missives scattered throughout these pages. Truly, the stuff of dreams.

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 1 out of 5]

Weird, but I was able to practice my French.

[BonGard · Rating 4 out of 5]

صد زن بی سر که بود؟
آیا کسی با چشمانش
لمحه‌ای درکوشش خاهد کرد؟

[Castles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never knew Ernst was such a master of those cross-hatching ink drawings. Those drawings we now recognize as old book’s illustration is a medium that we don’t hear about so much these days which demands some very high accuracy.

It’s somewhat different from his oil paintings, but many of his frottage techniques and his motifs with the bird loplop repeat here and invite us to the surreal and strange world he describes.

This makes me also realize that his inner world with its own rules is way more articulated and detailed than I expected.

[Arina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't say I've understood much but it is quite funny?

[Wendy Eiteljorg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of interesting images—and some racist ones. I wish there was some information about the technicalities of their creation. One of the things I like about collage is the combination of styles or materials, but the pieces here are all very consistent in style and so have uniformity that is unusual in collage.

[Dana Jerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the kind of deeply satisfying postmodern coloring book I wouldn’t mind owning a copy of. Exquisite work you can study for a long time and come back to over and over again.
Loplop reigns!
🐣✨

[Evan Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are crows in suits and moons, boats, babies as beards and baby birds (i.e. baby beards), a rustling inaudibly, a gizmo attached to a gadget substituting for an arm or other appendage; a hundred headless woman arrives, has lives and many appearances. I question whether the captions illuminate the pictures at all, having found them unhelpful. There are several chapters and within the chapters very fine rooms and nice houses, floods, a whispering inaudibly, a scratching branch and a ratchet, some moon-stroker and a pistol, a Pete and a saint, some whisper catechumen, and a mean look on the glades. Somewhere I find myself handing the broom to Mother, telling her to do the damn chores herself. There is a scene where a harbor o'erflows, the lanterns o'erlooking that delight! A chortle in a buck-kneed bottle. And there is Max Ernst, who was a soldier and wore a regulation uniform, but this was before he went mad as one should and before the kitchen was invaded by dragonflies and other metropolitan pests.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this stuff. 'Art is a woman without 100 heads'. Or something like that. Max Ernst was a real wiseguy, and a collage-ist supreme. This book is by turns humorous, fascinating, dreamlike, nightmareish, and beautiful. Incredible.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

majestic, dreamlike, and aggressive-at-a-distance. "Semaine de Bonte" is better and easier to acquire.

[Featherbooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

The drawings in Max Ernst surrealist collage novel recollect Victorian black and white woodblock illustrations: nude women, besuited men, fantastic creatures, games and conveyances encountered by Germinal/Perturbation, the hundred headless woman on her visit to a troubled dried-up earth, accompanied by Loplop the Swallow, "the Bird Superior".
References to mystery and religion throughout plus overt mention of impressionist painters of the era (Seurat, Cezanne, Rosa Bonheur) and other figures, Jules Verne, Mata Hari. Might be a fine college thesis and probably has been. Fascinating but still mysterious and worthy of rereading.

According to Andre Breton, The Hundred Headless Woman : La Femme 100 tetes "will be preeminently the picture book of our day, wherein it will be more and more apparent that every living room "has gone to the bottom of a lake" which, we must point out, its chandeliers of fishes, its gilded stars, its dancing grasses, its mud bottom and its raiment of reflections. Such is our idea of progress that, on the eve of 1930, we are glad and impatient, for once, to see children's eyes, filled with the ineffable, open like butterflies on the edge of this lake while, for their amazement and our own, fall the black lace masks that covered the first hundred faces of the enchantress."

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Crime or miracle: a complete man.”
—
“The demi-fecond ram dilates its abdomen at will and becomes a ewe.”
—
“Eviscerated baby, open dove-cote.”
—
“The Eternal Father, his beard laced with continuous lightning, in a subway accident.”
—
“Volcanic women life and shake their bodies’ posterior parts in a menacing way.”
—
“Unlimited meetings and robust effervescences in the wheel known as Poison.”
—
“Living alone on her phantom globe, beautiful and dressed in her dreams: Perturbation, my sister, the hundred headless woman. Each bloody riot will help her to live grace and truth. Her smile of fire will fall on the mountain sides in the form of black jelly and white rust. And her phantom globe will track us down at every stop.”
—
“Lighter than air, strong and isolated: Perturbation, my sister, the hundred headless woman.

But the waves are bitter. Truth will remain simple, and gigantic wheels will ride the bitter waves. And images will descend to the ground.
Every Friday, in rapid flight and with frequent detours, Titans will invade out laundries. And no sight will be more common than a Titan in the restaurant.”
—
“One will discover the germ of very precious visions in the blindness of wheelwrights. Gray, black or volcanic blacksmiths will whirl in the air over the forges and will forge crowns so large that they will rise together.”
—
“Perturbation, elevation, diminution. Drum-roll among the stones. Dilapidations, drawn excessively meticulous phantom.”

[Mortisha Cassavetes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this wonderful vintage book of art. I must say I did not understand some of it but what I did, I really enjoyed. I have to say the train art was my favorite and it took me back to a time that I occasionally dream about. I had read many things about this book and how it is considered one of the first graphic novels so it was a must read for me. I would recommend this to everyone who love historical art, firsts and things that make you wonder.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A characteristically surrealist text that is funny, clever, random-but-loosely-structured, and occasionally thought-provoking. Ernst's creativity and playfulness make for an enjoyable reading experience. I found myself returning to a couple images over the few days I took to absorb the collages, but I’m not sure if the book will have much of an impact beyond that short term pleasure. Although Loplop was certainly memorable.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Secret Unknowns for the hundred headless woman…

One should read again and figure out what it is the hundred headless woman is working to conceal more than she could tell. As she traverses thru the landscape of dreams, she steals eyes, what she would do with them is anybody’s guess. Interesting surrealistic collage but not the same as The Little Girl Taking the Veil. Perhaps expectations were held too high. Still, an interesting set of collages open to anybody’s interpretation.

[Rick Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

This surrealist 'collage novel' won't be for everyone. BUT if you want a challenge and a 'banquet' as Dorothea Tanning puts it, Pick It Up. I found myself laughing out loud at random juxtapositions, marvelously assembled collages, and the dialogue between text and image. I will read this over and over, I am pretty sure.

[Martin McDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fabulous (in more senses than one) book
Max Ernst's surrealist masterpiece is dazzling, enticing, seductive and frustrating all at once. The no-story of a text and the bizarre illustrations combine to make a work of art that can be approached in many different ways so that the reader/viewer is invited, even forced, to become an active participant. Highly recommended.

[Jasminum Mcmullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

So glad someone took interest in taking up the task of translation. I loved reading and learning with this one. Especially liked the use of images and minimal text. The chapters had subtle beginnings and endings. As a reader, I have plenty of room to fill in the story. A book I will return to and recommend as an example of what (collage) the novel can do.

[Pierre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly fascinating visuals in this collage novel by Max Ernst. The accompanying text, like the visuals, contains bizarre juxtapositions of images rendered in an aphoristic, poetic style. "Stronger than volcanoes, airy and isolated, Perturbation, my sister, the hundred headless woman."

[Elham Fakouri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ask this monkey, who’s the hundred headless woman? In the style of Church Fathers, he will answer: It’s enough for me to see the hundred headless woman to know.
It’s enough for you to demand an explanation, not to know.

[steven duane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly what I expected!

Wow, something only a mind as brilliant and warped as max ernst could produce a work so stunning. Totally worth the price.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dream. A nightmare. A fantasy. Science-fiction art history. A masterpiece.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Surrealist masterwork featuring the exploits of the dueling archons Loplop (Bird-Superior) and Perturbation (The Hundred Headless Woman) as they seek to reorder reality. Or something like that.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is impossible to review. Rather, one should simply experience the oddity of it in order to feel it.

[بيان · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice piece of art. I had so much fun reading it.