Paris Peasant

Louis Aragon's Paysan de Paris is a landmark in the history of modernist literature. The book basically illustrates the surrealist experiences of an "urban peasant" who sees Paris as an ancient, prehistoric landscape, full of mythical creatures. What Aragon does is to illustrate the fragmented and chaotic perception of modern life. Life in modernity is not anymore the predictable experience of past agrarian societies. It becomes agitated where the rule is to shock. Moreover, depicting Paris as an ancient mythical landscape instead of a modern sophisticated environment serves to criticize the dreamy character of capitalism where things appear as if they were always there, devoid of history and social relations. Aragon's book was essential in the development of modern aesthetic theory such as Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, and Peter Berger

Often considered one of the definitive surrealist novels (along with Andre Breton's NADJA), Paris Peasant is an exhilarating read. Aragon takes us through a special guided tour of Paris--not the Paris as we know it with its Eiffel Tower and other famous landmarks, but a Paris of crumbling arcades, dilapidated shopfronts and suburban parks. Aragon imbues the detritus of the city with poetry and magic, and shows us how the surrealist spirit lives in the outmoded structures of civilization. His ode to the Passage de l'Opera, at that time threatened by Baron Haussmann's plans for the redevelopment of the city, is a tacit challenge to the rapaciousness of capitalism and modernization, with its quest for the ever-new and its destruction of the past. Every urbanite will find something to identify with in this marvellous portrait of Paris in the 1920s.

This new edition of a scare work is welcome not only for the exposure it provides to Aragon and his work (if it can be called that), but for the loving manner in which it is produced. From the covers to the typeface to the translation of newspaper column margins, editor Damon Krukowski and designer Naomi Yang, known more for their musical than literary endevours, have brought attention to the smallest detail, the kind of attention that is the substance of the text itself. The translation, from a 1971 edition, flows perfectly; just alien enough from standard English to draw attention to Aragon's linguistic differences, but not a characature of French style. It would be hard to imagine a better English edition of this work. James L. Wolf