Louis Aragon was a pivotal figure in Surrealism and an influential writer of the 20th century. His work, spanning poetry, prose, and essays, reflects the principal intellectual currents of his time, with his political activism in communism adding another layer to his writings. Aragon's impact on literary theory, particularly concerning the novel and poetry, was considerable, and his distinctive voice continues to resonate.
The book presents a faithful reprint of the original edition of "Les aventures de Télémaque," ensuring readers experience the text as it was originally intended. This edition maintains the high quality of the original work, making it a valuable resource for those interested in classic literature.
Aragon was one of the most important French poets of the 20th century, nominated four times for the Nobel Prize. This collection was his last, first published in 1969.
This novel, much of it written amidst the horror of the trenches when Aragon was a medical orderly during the First World War, demonstrates the chasm that separates the works of the artists and writers of what would become Dadaism and those, say, of the English War poets. Aragon's precisely crafted and sardonic prose reveals a world that is no more than a tragic puppet show, with every scene self-evidently staged. This furious tempest of a book launched Aragon's career and is one the cornerstones of the Paris Dada movement.
Debauched aristocrat Mony Vibesco and a circle of fellow degenerates blaze a trail of uncontrollable lust and depravity across the streets of Europe. A young man reminisces his sexual awakening at the hands of aunt and sister as he is expertly schooled in the finer arts of Venus. Les Onze Mille Verges and Les Memoires D'Un Jeune Don Juan are the two notoriously wild and explicit erotic novellas crafted by Dadaist poet Guillaume Apollinaire at the turn of this century. Apollinaire fine-tuned his uniquely poetic and surreal vision to produce these two masterpieces of literary erotica, works which compare with the best of the Marquis de Sade. Both books are presented here in complete and unexpurgated versions for the very first time in English, in translations by Alexis Lykiard, with full introduction and annotation.