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    Description

    Handwritten manuscript by André Breton dated 10-11 April 1938 and illustrated with a drawing. 

    Dreams... the oldest dates from 1931, the most recent from the post-war period; in them we see the appearance of figures Breton knew well from various periods, such as his parents, René Char in the first one, or Robert Denoël in the third... Les Vases communicants repeats part of the text from April 1931 and ‘Trajectoire du rêve’ quotes two from 1938, but unlike the dream accounts published sporadically by Breton or collected in the unpublished material in his Complete Works, these are texts written for his own use, with no concern for literary matters. Moreover, they are clearly very intimate in nature and some include drawings, both these aspects giving them an ‘extraliterary’ character, even if one should take care in use this term in the context of the surrealists. Whatever the case, we can note that they really don’t suit being put into literary form, other than through extensive reworking that would thus change their nature. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]

     

    Handwritten manuscripts, in a folder titled by André Breton: ‘Dream Manuscripts’.
    Handwritten manuscripts of 10/11 April 1938.
    - 1 in-4 page and 1 in-16 page on an envelope, handwritten manuscripts in ink with deletions and corrections by Breton:
    ‘The preceding farewell dinner had finished badly, that evening the guests had found little paper toys scattered around their place settings, menus cut into bells, etc. Jacqueline wasn’t happy to find a little pink pig on her plate. During the meal she had thrown it under the table, I had picked it up so as to avoid an incident, either then or later on. The conversation that had carried on even after leaving the table had taken a bad turn. The person on my right at the dinner table had in front of him a kind of paper trumpet decorated with a character I didn’t approve of and that could have been used as the model for the little invisible man.’ [Auction catalogue, 2003]

    The dream is joined by a fragment found in lot 2164. Registered at the bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet under the class mark BRT 60, this fragment constitutes the remainder of the dream of 11-12 April included in lot 2216. It was mistakenly included in lot 2164, and as a result the bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet only acquired the latter part of it. Now the puzzle is solved, and the broken link reconnected.  [André Breton website, Constance Krebs, 2017]

     

    Translated by Krzysztof Fijalkowski

    Bibliography

    - André Breton, Trajectoire du rêve, Paris, Guy Lévis-Mano, 1938.

    Creation date10-11-avr-1938
    Bibliographical material

    1 in-4 page

    1 in-16 page on an envelope

    LanguagesFrench
    Physical descriptionMs, Ds - encre noire
    Library

    Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris : BRT 60

    Reference1850000, Lot 2164
    Breton Auction, 2003Lot 2216
    Keywords
    CategoriesAndre Breton's Manuscripts
    Set[AB's Manuscripts] Unpublished Manuscripts of Dreams
    Permanent linkhttps://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100036030

    See also

    4 Works
     
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    After arguments at my parents' house...

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    André Breton

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    Handwritten manuscript by André Breton, undated, in a folder titled ‘Dream Manuscripts’.

    Four images, a description, a library.

    [AB's Manuscripts] Unpublished Manuscripts of Dreams

    False

    It is the evening and someone... I'd gone to bed very sadly...

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    André Breton

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    Handwritten manuscript by André Breton, dated 5 April 1931, in a folder titled ‘Manuscripts Dreams’.
    Two images, a descriptive note, a library.

    [AB's Manuscripts] Unpublished Manuscripts of Dreams

    False

    At my parents' home during my stay...

    -
    André Breton

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    Undated hand-written manuscript by André Breton in a folder entitled ‘Manuscripts Dreams’.

    Four images, a descriptive note, a library.

    [AB's Manuscripts] Unpublished Manuscripts of Dreams

    False

    Dominguez is in front of me...

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    André Breton

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    Handwritten manuscript by André Breton, undated, in a folder titled ‘Dream Manuscripts’.

    An image, a description, a library, a bibliography.

    [AB's Manuscripts] Unpublished Manuscripts of Dreams

    1 Comment
     

    En ce qui concerne le manuscrit d'Einstein cité, il s'agit très probablement d'un manuscrit d'Albert et non de Carl Einstein qui était en 1938 en Espagne (bien sûr c'est un rêve), v. Meffre 2002 et Carl Einstein im Exil, éd. Kröger et Roland, 2007

    Klaus H. Kiefer

    19/12/2013