Poetry
La nuit remue
Not translated into English
Henri Michaux · 1935
Synopsis
Two collections in one. The first part, which gives the book its title, gathers thirty-two texts, mostly prose: the first shows a peaceful room where a stain appears on the windowpane, where blood flows and from which a dead man comes out of the wardrobe; others are called “Mon roi” or “Le village des fous”; then come a few poems in free verse. The second, Mes propriétés, brings together fifty-nine texts that are more disparate still: narratives, invented words, descriptions of imaginary animals and word games.
Context
The book appeared with Gallimard in 1935. Its second part had first appeared separately, and the author added a postface in which he says he wrote it for his health. According to the biographer Jean-Pierre Martin, the title was found in 1931 by Jean Ballard, director of the Cahiers du Sud, when publishing the opening text. Michaux took pages from it in 1944 for a selection of his writings; revised in 1967, the book entered paperback only after his death, he who had refused such editions.
Who it is for
Short texts in prose and verse, with invented words, written in French; available in paperback in the Poésie collection.
Prizes and reception
Ranked among its author's main works, a collection still in print.