Cavalier Perspective

"Breton died two years short of May '68 but his principles were under every paving stone. Whether he is citing Aime Césaire's Discourse on Colonialism as a 'pure source' in the struggle against empire, or reasserting his faith that dreams are 'guiding instructions,' Breton is clearer than ever here. Cavalier Perspective also contains my favorite Breton quote about writing: 'in relation to everything that could be considered aberrant and unbearable, it should from the outset demonstrate a desire to intervene.'"—Sasha Frere-Jones, author of Earlier

"Cavalier Perspective is André Breton's last book, sensitively assembled by his friend Marguerite Bonnet from occasional texts written during the final decade and a half of his life. It shows him as a significant chronicler of his age, one who was fully engaged with the issues of his time, many of which are still of relevance and vital importance for us today."—Michael Richardson, general editor of The International Encyclopedia of Surrealism

"Addressing all the major themes that preoccupied Breton throughout his career—from Trotskyism and anti-colonialism to anti-rationalism, the role of the marvelous, and the 'complete liberation of poetry and, through it, of life'—these late essays amount to the last word of one of the most influential aesthetic minds of the 20th century. They also give us a vivid portrait of an age drawn through the arts and artists that so profoundly marked it. Austin Carder has performed a monster feat of translation here, catching every nuance of Breton's sinuous, faceted thinking, and Garrett Caples' substantial introduction draws on his extensive scholarship to give the reader the historical, political, and social background necessary to grasp its intricacies and impact." —Cole Swensen, author of And And And

"André Breton within his penultimate range of living issued fumes from a monument of orchids sans Metropolitan concrete and anguish. Via Cavalier Perspective (this belatedly translated voltage) he thrives within waves of his immeasurable aural spell. The latter by means of a blinding convoluted majestic that simultaneously transmutes by means of interior eddy. Within this mesmeric conjointment he powerfully witnesses Artaud, magnifying their mutually thriving poetic identity not unlike magically etched lightning by psychically seeded weather. This interior tenor pervades Cavalier Perspective as it persists by inner lingual leap, always hailing beyond tendentious rationality, the latter charred by delimited lingual essence. Within its refracted state of fractional detritus, its intent is infected by fossilized tenor weighed as it is by linear clotting. Thus the latter state attempts to retain its lostness vis-á-vis instillment by magnification as history."—Will Alexander, author of Divine Blue Light (For John Coltrane)