Description

Autograph manuscript signed and dated 15 August 1922. In these short texts dated 1922 one can note surrealist detestations: Paul Morand, Pierre Benoît and Jean Giraudoux, Raymond Radiguet. These "Opinions" - in the full sense of the term, rather than common opinion - fall between paradoxes pastiches and provocations. In these short texts dated 1922, in addition to the mainstream press and the Académie Française (with a swipe at the marshals who, for the feats of arms, became ‘immortals’ after the Great War), one can note other surrealist hatreds: Paul Morand, Pierre Benoît and Jean Giraudoux for taking the easy way out, Raymond Radiguet, who with Jean Cocteau (another target, absent here) founded Le Coq, an anti-Dadaist review. Finally, one can note the ambiguity with which the figure of André Gide is treated, the surrealist group having admired the Lafcadio of Les Caves du Vatican [The Vatican Cellars]. "I'm the opposite," states Robert Desnos, after a list of cultural predilictions: and here we are closer to the spirit of Dada than to Surrealism’s dispositions in the Manifesto of 1924, because these exclusions include works or authors considered unworthy, and above all, not to the group’s tastes. Signed autograph manuscript, 15 August 1922. Two pages of critical texts in black ink dated 15 August 1922 and signed by Robert Desnos: "There are people who prefer Balzac to Eugène Sue, Stendhal to Jules Mary, Parsifal to Carmen, Carmen to The Rite of Spring, France to Patagonia, death to dishonour, suffering to death. I am precisely the opposite."

Creation date	15-août-22
Bibliographical material	2 large pages in-4°
Date of publication	1922
Languages	French
Physical description	Ms - encre noire
Breton Auction, 2003	Lot 2033
Keywords	Criticism, Work notes, Poetry
Categories	Surrealists Manuscripts
Set	[Manuscripts] dossier Robert Desnos
Permanent link	https://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100171330