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After having crossed the boulevard de Clichy...

Manuscript

Author

Author André Breton

Description

Handwritten manuscript by André Breton, of a dream transcribed after 1962.

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du rêve’ quotes two from 1938, but unlike the dream accounts published sporadically by Breton or collected in the unpublished material in his Complete Works, these are texts written for his own use, with no concern for literary matters.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 manuscript, ‘Night of Sun./Monday, woke up at 4.25’. 
- 1 1/2 in-12 page, a dream written out by Breton in red ink:
‘After having crossed the boulevard de Clichy on my way home a personage from the previous century in ceremonial garb – I feel that he is guarding the entrance and exit of the urinals - at the moment I am about to cross the street I find myself level with a group of three or four youngsters being stopped in their path by Death, a smiling male figure.’ [Auction catalogue, 2003]

Translated by Krzysztof Fijalkowski

Bibliography

André Breton (Édition publiée sous la direction d'Étienne-Alain Hubert avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier et Marie-Claire Dumas), « [Après avoir croisé boulevard de Clichy...] », Œuvres complètes, tome IV, Écrits sur l'art et autres textes, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 2008, p. 1159, notice p. 1476.

 

Creation datesd
LanguagesFrench
Number of pages2 p.
Reference1829000
Breton Auction, 2003Lot 2477
Keywords,
CategoriesAndre Breton's Manuscripts
Set[AB's Manuscripts] Unpublished Manuscripts of Dreams
Permanent linkhttps://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100092260

See also

1 Work
 
False

Erotic Manuscript

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André Breton

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Autograph manuscript from André Breton, undated.

[AB's Manuscripts] Miscellaneous Manuscripts