Anthology of Black Humor
(about the book of inspiration)

André Breton

The general concept of black humor and its name originate from Breton's famous anthology, published in Paris in 1939.

André Breton (1896 - 1966) was the inventor of literary surrealism. He understood critical, or black, humor as an art form whose true initiators were Jonathan Swift and the Marquis de Sade. It was the overly sensitive, the restless ones with an alert conscience, who turned their way of thinking into the seductive form of black humor.

Breton collected writings by 45 authors. The most important determining factor in his choices was the observance of surrealistic standpoints.

As editor, André Breton wrote an extensive foreword, introductions to the selections, and a bibliographic overview.
<The infernal cruelties and subversive and taboo-breaking monstrosities collected in this volume can send plenty of shivers down the reader's (or in this case, listener's) spine. But at the same time, the work done here by the imagination provides a certain pleasure in acts of liberation.>

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