Description

Seven-page manuscript of an active sleeping fit by Desnos, Péret or Crevel, dated 1922. An extreme agitation, evidenced by the speed of the pencil running over the paper to leave only a barely legible scrawl; emerging here and there are the themes of combat, and of what seems to be boxing ("I beat Carpenter"). The dreamer - Desnos, Péret, Crevel - seems to be in the grip of a disorder that echoes in Breton's remarks in 1952: "the ‘sleeping fits’ [...] encouraged in certain sleeping subjects an impulsive activity from which one could fear the worst.” He recalls a session at the home of Mme de La Hire, a friend of Picabia, where several sleeping people tried to hang themselves; or an evening when "several of us had to restrain the sleeping Desnos who, brandishing a knife, was chasing Éluard around the garden." (Entretiens, 1952). 7 pages in-4° in black pencil on Office français des Intérêts féminins [French Office for Women's Interests] letterheaded paper: "It's the negroes who caught them... That's it, they fight all the time. Some are on the ground, others are climbing on top... Like Cravan, he was a boxer..."

Creation date	1923
Date of publication	1922
Languages	French
Physical description	Ms - crayon noir
Library	Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris : BRT 161
Method of acquisition and collection	Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris, don Aube et Oona Elléouët
Reference	14000
Breton Auction, 2003	Lot 2026
Keywords	Work notes, Psychoanalysis, Dream, Automatic Writing
Categories	Manuscripts, Surrealists Manuscripts
Set	[Manuscripts] Sommeils
Permanent link	https://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100024930