In this novel of extremes, whose author's distaste for 'things as they are' includes the whole idea of 'novels', Michael Leiris pursues his heroine, Aurora, through a visionary landscape shot through with catastrophe and disaster. His lucid and baroque language, with its incredible descriptions and ever more extravagant metaphors, is only just able to maintain his pursuit.

Including a number of short essays by Bataille and Leiris on aspects of the other's work as well as excerpts on Bataille from Leiris' diaries, this collection of correspondence throws new light on two of Surrealism's most radical dissidents.   In the autumn of 1924, just before André Breton published the Manifeste du surréalisme, two young men met in Paris for the first time.  Georges Bataille, 27, starting work at the Bibliothèque Nationale; Michel Leiris, 23, beginning his studies in ethnology.  Within a few months, they were both members of the Surrealist group, although their adherence to Surrealism (unlike their affinities with it) would not last long: in 1930 they were among the signatories of "Un cadavre," the famous tract against Breton, the "Machiavelli of Montmartre," as Leiris put it.  But their friendship would endure for more than 30 years, and their correspondence, assembled here for the first time in English, would continue until the death of Bataille in 1962.

Stories and Remarks collects the best of Raymond Queneau's shorter prose. The works span his career and include short stories, an uncompleted novel, melancholic and absurd essays, occasionally baffling "Texticles", a pastiche of Alice in Wonderland, and his only play. Talking dogs, boozing horses, and suicides come head to head with ruminations on the effects of aerodynamics on addition, rhetorical dreams, and a pioneering example of permutational fiction influenced by computer language. Also included is Michel Leiris's preface from the French edition, an introduction by the translator, and endnotes addressing each piece individually.

Raymond Queneau -- polyglot, novelist, philosopher, poet, mathematician, screenwriter, and translator -- was one of the most significant figures in twentieth-century French letters. His work touches on many of the major literary movements of his life-time, from surrealism to the experimental school of the nouveau roman. He also founded the Oulipo, a collection of writers and mathematicians dedicated to the search for artificial inspiration via the application of constraint.

"Not only one of the frankest of autobiographies, but also a brilliantly written book, Leiris' "Manhood" mingles memories, philosophic reflections, sexual revelation, meditations on bullfighting, and the life-long progress of self-discovery."--"Washington Post Book World "
"Leiris writes to appall, and thereby to receive from his readers the gift of a strong emotion--the emotion needed to defend himself against the indignation and disgust he expects to arouse in his readers."--Susan Sontag, "New York Review of Books "