PRODUCTS
Our debut publication
is A Wave of Dreams by Louis Aragon (1924). This
is the first time Aragon's seminal French surrealist text has been
published in English as a single volume.
The translation
is introduced by Dawn Ades, Professor of Art History and Theory at
the University of Essex, and Co-Director of the Centre
for the Study of Surrealism and its Legacies, and is
accompanied by a CD of eight spoken extracts set to music by Tymon
Dogg and Alex Thomas.
Aragon's extraordinary prose-poem-essay A Wave of Dreams
(Une vague de rêves), is a compelling, lyrical, first-hand account
of the early days of surrealist experimentation in Paris.
Writing in 1924, Aragon vividly describes, and philosophically evaluates,
the inner adventures, the hallucinations and encounters with the 'Marvellous'
which took the young surrealists to the brink of insanity as a revolutionary
new era in Art History was born.
Among Aragon's companions in derangement are André Breton (whose
own 'Surrealist Manifesto' was preceded by this book), Max Ernst,
Man Ray, Antonin Artaud, Robert Desnos, Philippe Souppault and Benjamin
Peret.
Thin Man's A Wave of Dreams is beautifully printed
and designed in the style of classic French literary paperbacks with
a contemporary twist.
Susan de Muth, who translated the text, is a writer and translator
whose previous work includes Claude Cahun's Aveux non Avenus
(published 2008 by Tate as Disavowals), Mayakovsky
– Russian Poet (published 2002 by Hearing Eye) and
23 Dada Manifestos in A Dada Reader (Tate
publishing, 2006). All of these books will soon be available for purchase
on this site.
A Wave of Dreams is offered with a CD of spoken extracts,
read by actor Alex Walker and evocatively set to music by Tymon
Dogg and Alex Thomas. Like a soundtrack to the imagined
film prompted by the words, these interpretations lead the listener
into the strange worlds suggested by Aragon, and make them, perhaps,
more accessible.
Alex Walker and
Alex Thomas also work together as Uru-Ana.
