Narrative
Nadja
André Breton · 1928
Synopsis
“Who am I?” The narrator notes down in Paris whatever chance puts in his path, a place, a shop sign, an encounter. On 4 October 1926, in the late afternoon, in the rue Lafayette, he meets a young woman who calls herself Nadja, a name she says is taken from the Russian word that begins hope. He sees her again in the following days, becomes attached to her way of seeing the world and collects the drawings she makes for him.
Context
The narrative was written from August to December 1927 and appeared in 1928 from the Nouvelle Revue française. Forty-four images stand in for descriptions in it, including photographs by Jacques-André Boiffard, Henri Manuel and Man Ray. The author gave a revised version in 1963. The young woman, Léona Delcourt, had known him for only about ten days, from 4 to 13 October 1926.
Who it is for
A short narrative, in which one can stop at any page. The images are part of the text and are not added to it: to skip them is to lose part of the book.
Prizes and reception
Translated into English by Richard Howard in 1960, then by Mark Polizzotti in 2025, the book kept its title in both translations.
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