The Magnetic Fields

by Philippe Soupault and André Breton

Book Overview

An indispensible classic of French poetry, this is a new translation of Breton and Soupault's experiment with automatic writing, and also the first known work of literary surrealism.

In the spring of 1919, two young men, Andr Breton and Philippe Soupault, both in a state of shock after World War I, embarked on an experiment. Sick of the literary cultivation of "voice," sick of the "well-written," they wanted to unleash the power of the word and to create "a new morality" to replace "the prevailing morality, the source of all our trials and tribulations." They had a plan. They would write for a week on every day of the week and they would write fast, as fast as possible, in complete secrecy. When the week was over, the writing would be done. No touching up.

This was how The Magnetic Fields, the first sustained exercise in automatic writing, came to be. Charlotte Mandell's brilliant new translation reveals a key work of twentieth-century literature.

This English-only edition does not include the poems in their original language.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1681374609
• ISBN13: 9781681374604
• Release Date: October 2020
• Publisher: New York Review of Books
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 4.4" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

One of my favorite books of all time

I discovered this book at Arizona State University's, Hayden Library when I was in school in 1993 and it totally changed what I thought about literature. Its absolutely intoxicating freedom of creation was like nothing I had ever read except maybe Arthur Rimbaud. This book, I believe, points in the direction of pure human creativity not constrained by logic, form or anything that disconnects us from existence itself. On these roads maybe we can get back to the beginnings, not writing stories but why we write stories, why we scratched on cave walls.