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Sleeping fit

First period of hypnotic sleeping fits

Manuscript

Author

Authors Robert Desnos, non identifié
Person cited Arthur Cravan

Description

Seven-page manuscript of an active sleeping fit by Desnos, Péret or Crevel, dated 1922. An extreme agitation, evidenced by the speed of the pencil running over the paper to leave only a barely legible scrawl; emerging here and there are the themes of combat, and of what seems to be boxing ("I beat Carpenter"). The dreamer - Desnos, Péret, Crevel - seems to be in the grip of a disorder that echoes in Breton's remarks in 1952: "the ‘sleeping fits’ [...] encouraged in certain sleeping subjects an impulsive activity from which one could fear the worst.” He recalls a session at the home of Mme de La Hire, a friend of Picabia, where several sleeping people tried to hang themselves; or an evening when "several of us had to restrain the sleeping Desnos who, brandishing a knife, was chasing Éluard around the garden." (Entretiens, 1952). 7 pages in-4° in black pencil on Office français des Intérêts féminins [French Office for Women's Interests] letterheaded paper: "It's the negroes who caught them... That's it, they fight all the time. Some are on the ground, others are climbing on top... Like Cravan, he was a boxer..."
Creation date1923
Date of publication 1922
LanguagesFrench
Physical descriptionMs - crayon noir
Library

Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris : BRT 161

Method of acquisition and collectionBibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris, don Aube et Oona Elléouët
Reference14000
Breton Auction, 2003Lot 2026
Keywords, , ,
CategoriesManuscripts, Surrealists Manuscripts
Set[Manuscripts] Sommeils
Permanent linkhttps://cms.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100024930