Paris and the Surrealists ( Images | Introduction)

‘The localities that we passed through…even the most colourless ones, were positively transformed by a spellbinding romantic inventiveness that never faltered and that needed only a street-turning or a shop-window to inspire a fresh outpouring’ André Breton

Paris seduced and intoxicated the Surrealists, those bizarre and inspired poets, writers and painters who won almost mythic status after their Parisian début in the 1920s. They sought to realize the latent possibilities of the city and to evoke wonder from the mundane: aims that were readily achieved in Paris.

In Paris and the Surrealists (Thames and Hudson) George Melly's eloquent text is superbly set off by the haunting and atmospheric photographs of Michael Woods. Capturing the spirit of Paris, these pictures are filled with echoes of past associations and acute perceptions of new ‘Surrealist’ additions to the cityscape. Words and images join to lead us in the footsteps of the Surrealists.

Melly provides not only a narrative history of Surrealism, but also an analysis of the major works of Surrealist literature, all of which are imbued with the essence of ‘the feminine city’. He reveals that even now the Surrealist spirit lives on as part of the very soul of Paris.

Adapted from the back cover of the book Paris and the Surrealists, Thames and Hudson, ISBN 0-500-27638-2. (out of print).