In Montparnasse
  • Published: 2 August 2018
  • ISBN: 9780241976593
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 384

In Montparnasse

The Emergence of Surrealism in Paris, from Duchamp to Dali

Formats & editions
Paperback
17 Sep 2019
EBook
2 Aug 2018
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An absorbing, gossipy account of the birth of Surrealism and the painters, writers, and artists who lived, loved and worked in 1920s Paris

Taking up where the bestselling 'crowd biography' In Montmartre left off, this is Sue Roe's lively account of the birth of Surrealism. Informative and entertaining, the book begins with Marcel Duchamp and the wonderfully eccentric and avant garde Dada movement, going on to tell the story of the moving death of Modigliani, the birth of Surrealist photography with Man Ray and his muse Kiki de Montparnasse, the love triangle between writer Paul Eluard, his wife Gala and artist Max Ernst, and finally the arrival of Salavador Dali in Paris in 1929. In Montparnasse describes the extraordinary, revolutionary work these artists undertook as much as the salons, café life friendships, rows and love affairs that were their background.
  • Published: 2 August 2018
  • ISBN: 9780241976593
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 384
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About the author

Sue Roe

Sue Roe is a freelance writer and teacher. A former Lecturer at the University of East Anglia, she is the author of a novel, Estella, Her Expectation, a collection of poems, The Spitfire Factory, and Writing and Gender: Virginia Woolf's Writing Practice. She is also co-editor of the Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf, and her most recent book is the widely praised Gwen John: A Life.

Also by Sue Roe

In Montmartre
The Private Lives Of The Impressionists
Gwen John
See all

Praise for In Montparnasse

Roe is a talented writer, fascinated by la vie Boheme . . . She can find phrases that perfectly capture the feeling of a neighbourhood

John Carey, Sunday Times

Brings together some of the chief protagonists in one of the 20th century's most inventive art movements. A vivid read

Radio Times

Sue Roe describes with plenty of colour how surrealism was born and developed in Montparnasse . . . Roe marshals [the figures behind dada and surrealism] with great finesse

The Times

Enjoyable, engaging, rollicking - the storytelling is lively

Spectator, on ‘In Montmartre’

Admirable. What an eye for art Roe has. Brilliant

Guardian, on ‘In Montmartre’

An elegant synthesis of complex material... it excels: Roe is a skilled and graceful writer.

The Telegraph on 'In Montmartre'

Lively and engaging... in her entertaining, ingeniously structured account Roe brings Montmartre's heyday back to life.

The Sunday Times on 'In Montmartre'

[Roe]skilfully weaves her descriptions of artworks into her romp through the artists' struggles and fractious relationships.

The Times on 'In Montmartre'

A colourful narrative describing the travails and triumphs of an equally colourful cast.

New Statesman on 'In Montmartre'

With evocative imagery Roe sketches out the intensely visual spectacle on which Montmartre's artistic community was able to draw

Financial Times on 'In Montmartre'

Highly colourful . . . they're all here, the big names of the time - behaving badly, and, at times, quite madly too

Rachel Cooke, Observer

She vividly charts the birth of surrealism . . . a tale rich in absurdity and outlandish characters, from Cocteau and Max Ernst to Dali and Picasso

Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times