Why read The Dedalus Book of Surrealism?

Book cover of The Dedalus Book of Surrealism: The Identity of Things

Book description

Comprised of works by authors from 17 countries, these volumes provide the most extensive assemblage of surrealist writing, much of which is here translated into English for the first time. "The Identity of Things" introduces surrealism's reworking of the fairy tale and the Gothic novel, its essays in the myths,…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Dedalus Book of Surrealism as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Mike Russell

Author

Some of the stories in this collection, like my own stories, use surreal metaphor, expressing poetic imagery in prose form; others are more about the thrill of absurdity. Though surrealism existed before the term or movement existed (in visual art and literature e.g. Lewis Carroll, Hieronymus Bosch, etc.), Andre Breton and his mates really went for it. Here you can read works by Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel, Louis Aragon, Leonora Carrington, and more. What I love about all of these artists is their obvious joy in discovering the surreal or poetic image, a joy I know well, and their absolute…

From Mike's list on The strangest, weirdest, and most surreal short story collections.