Product Description

NADJA is a Surrealist romance, and has come to be known as a book which defined that movement's attitude towards life. With its blend of intimate confession and sense of the marvellous, NADJA weaves a myterious and compelling tapestry of daily life as seen through a magical perspective. Combining autobiographical fact with memory and imagination, Breton spins one of the most unusual love stories in modern literature.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22843 in Books
• Published on: 1999-09-02
• Original language: French
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

About the Author
Andre Breton, poet and writer, was the founder of the Surrealist movement in France, and is remembered as being its heart and soul. He died in 1966. Mark Polizzotti is a writer and translator, and also works in an editorial capacity for David Godine Publishers in the US.

Customer Reviews

One of the most accessible surrealist texts
This is one of the most important and underead books of the century. Standing alongside Joyce, Aragon and Durrell as a writer of place Breton writes of a Paris that is anti-monumental and anti-romantic by turns. This is not a gentle read. The relationship between the narrator and Najda leaves you stranded amoungst the disenchantment that is typical of surrealism, as opposed to the romanticism of popular-surrealism, whilst she ends up broken in an insane asylum he marvels at the surrealists survival. She 'lacked an instinct of self presevation...'

enjoy.

Nadja
Books such as this, overflowing with ambiguity, should be approached two ways:

The first is with an open mind, at which in this instance, you are (providing Breton's rambling 60 page introduction doesn't bore you off) inevitably about to fall head over heels for the unusual, multi-faceted character; `Nadja'!
Yet what Nadja is; her identity, although alluring, is the voice in the back of our heads, that we silence each day that we participate in everyday life. She is the character that would not conform, freedom in purest essence, the presence that will leave shadows upon the lives of each person she meets, until inescapably stripped of her character by the ignorant minds who misinterpret her.

The second is, like I, to enter this auto-biographical account of Breton's genius with a question, which instead of reading in between the lines, you will undoubtedly find yourself falling into great crevices of self, where journeys seem to flow like underground rivers.

I recommend this book to anyone who is either looking for a good read, or seeking answers to the deepest journeys of identity and the world.

Very insightful
Nadja is one of Breton's best works in the way that it portrays the male/female relationship within the surrealist movement. Nadja is both a source of entertainment and enlightenment for Breton, though I saw her more as another way of objectifying the female figure in surrealist work. I loved the description and concentration on Nadja's character. On the other hand, the first several chapters of the book are almost cumbersome to all who want to get into the 'meat' of the text (I found them interesting, but some of my colleagues didn't). One thing that I must say about this work is that I don't believe that it functions as a love story, though many people that review the text feel that it does. Instead, I see it more as an interesting snapshot of relationship issues (in a surreal light) but not necessarily love issues. Another masterful work by the leader of surrealism.