Name: The Thief
SKU: 59269620
Price: 414.00 ZAR
Availability: InStock
Author: André Breton
ISBN: 9781681378121

Type

Physical Book

Author

Georges Darien

Epilogue by

André Breton

Translated by

Jacques Houis

Publisher

New York Review of Books

Language

English

Pages

400

Format

Paperback

Weight

0.37 kg.

ISBN13

9781681378121

Synopsis "The Thief"

Made into a 1967 film by Louis Malle and never before available in English, this classic of anarchist literature follows a once well-to-do young man forced into an itinerant life of crime. The Thief is a picture of the sleezy underbelly of the Belle Époque, a broadside fired against the corruptions of power and privilege. Written by the anarchist activist Georges Darien (a pseudonym that can be translated as "Lord Nothing"), it found almost no readers when it came out at the end of the nineteenth century, though Alfred Jarry embraced it as one of his favorite books. Over the years, however, this picaresque masterpiece with shades of black comedy has found a growing number of admirers, from the surrealist capo dei capi André Breton to Lucy Sante. It is a book of wild, comic, profane energy that, in its luxuriant nihilism, anticipates Céline's Journey to the End of Night. Georges Randal is the titular thief, a young Frenchman of good family who, having been deprived of his inheritance by a conniving uncle, takes to a life of crime. Moving between London, Brussels, and Paris, in a world of hookers, drifters and grifters, revolutionaries and politicians, bankers and thieves, he is in a position to reveal modern society in all its teeming corruption. The thief is no hero. Like everyone else in this decadent society, he is a trafficker and exploiter--and a wounded soul. At least, however, he has the courage of his disaffection, his fury warmed by self-hatred. And he does seem a somewhat distant cousin of Robin Hood, targeting the wealthy and helping the needy when the opportunity arises. After more than a hundred years, Georges Darien's vision of our fallen modern world--the inhuman comedy he proposed to set beside Balzac's human one--seems especially pertinent to our current Gilded Age. Jacques Houis's new translation is the first ever into English.

André Breton

(Epilogue by)

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André Breton fue un escritor, poeta y ensayista francés considerado el principal fundador y teórico del surrealismo. Nacido en 1896 en Tinchebray, Francia, estudió medicina y trabajó en hospitales psiquiátricos durante la Primera Guerra Mundial, experiencia que despertó su interés por el inconsciente, los sueños y las teorías de Sigmund Freud. Tras vincularse inicialmente al dadaísmo, Breton impulsó el movimiento surrealista en la década de 1920 mediante manifiestos, revistas y experimentos de escritura automática. Su influencia trascendió la literatura y alcanzó la pintura, el cine y la filosofía, convirtiéndose en una figura central de las vanguardias europeas. Básicamente, si el surrealismo tuvo un director técnico, Breton llevaba el silbato y probablemente también un pez flotando sobre la cabeza.

Entre sus obras más importantes se encuentran Nadja, Los vasos comunicantes, El amor loco y El arte mágico, ensayo donde reflexiona sobre la relación entre creación artística, simbolismo y pensamiento mágico a lo largo de distintas culturas y períodos históricos. Breton defendía el arte como una vía de liberación mental y transformación de la realidad, alejándose de las restricciones racionalistas tradicionales. Aunque su personalidad generó tensiones dentro del propio movimiento surrealista, su papel como impulsor intelectual y organizador fue decisivo para consolidar una de las corrientes artísticas más influyentes del siglo XX.

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