Traité du style

Traité du style continues the polemical tradition dear to the Surrealists. It was triggered by an article by Marcel Arland in La Nouvelle Revue française, which dismissed Surrealism as a literary “trick.” Aragon replied. There was nothing new in this, since responses to the movement’s opponents were common enough, but the excess and extravagance here reached an unprecedented scale, and did so under the white cover of Éditions de la NRF, itself widely mocked. Several writers were troubled by it and discontent simmered, but Gaston Gallimard defended his author against Paul Valéry and André Gide, literally called “emmerdeurs” [pests].

A rare printing on green paper, two years after Le Libertinage. This printing is announced as limited to 25 copies, hors commerce, “for the author.” Breton and Éluard, in these same years, were likewise given these specific colored printings (on green, jonquil-yellow or salmon paper). Note also that for these green-paper copies, Gallimard extended the refinement to the wrappers themselves: the usual double frame line on the front cover, normally red, is here printed in green.