Revolution of the mind cover

Revolution of the mind

by Mark Polizzotti

In the first full-length biography in English of Andre Breton, the founder and prime theorist of the French Surrealist movement, Mark Polizzotti reveals the intellectual, artistic and personal life of one of our century's most influential and charismatic cultural figures, a man whom Eugene Ionesco dubbed "one of the four or five great reformers of modern thought.". This definitive work traces Breton's artistic career, from his participation in the Paris Dada group in the 1920s, through his seminal experiments with automatic writings and "induced slumbers," to the development of Surrealism proper and the literary, aesthetic, social, and political successes and scandals of that most influential modernist movement. Polizzotti reconstructs Breton's intense and formative friendships with Man Ray, Duchamp, Dali, and Miro, among others; his legendary encounters with Trotsky, Freud, and Sartre; and his several marriages and love affairs.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?