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Whirling top

Manuscript

Author

Author André Breton
People cited Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Eugène Ionesco, Sören Kierkegaard

Description

Manuscript signed by André Breton and dated 23 September 1955.

In September 1955 while in Saint-Cirq Breton introduced one of the events of the Parisian season, a new play by Ionesco given at the Théâtre de la Huchette. It should be noted that rather than the term ‘absurd’, Breton prefers the English notion of nonsense, even if he refers to Kierkegaard. The text would be published under the title ‘Whirling Top’ in the Cahiers des Saisons, at the end of 1955. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]

Hand written manuscript signed by André Breton and dated 23 September 1955.
- 1/2 page in-4° relating to Ionesco, handwritten, dated and signed by André Breton in black ink with erasures and corrections:
‘Once more the Théâtre de la Huchette sets up its whirring top in the heart of old Paris, absorbing on its own every other noise in the city: a new Ionesco play.’
- 1/4 page in-4° of the first draft of the same text with variants, handwritten in ink by Breton, with erasures and corrections. [Auction catalogue, 2003]

Bibliography

André Breton (Édition publiée sous la direction d'Étienne-Alain Hubert avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier et Marie-Claire Dumas), « Toupie ronflante [Sur un spectacle de Ionesco », Alentours, Œuvres complètes, tome IV, Écrits sur l'art et autres textes, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 2008, p. 1056-1057, notice p. 1445.