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  • Nadja
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Andr¨¦ Breton
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Nadja Paperback ¨C June 17 2025

by André Breton (Author), Mark Polizzotti (Introduction, Translator)
4.6 out of 5 stars 177 ratings
3.5 on Goodreads
12,676 ratings

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A new translation of one of the defining works of the French surrealist movement, an energetic autobiographical novel that is at once both a tumultuous romance story and an initiation into the surrealism of everyday life.

In Paris, during the fall of 1926, Andr¨¦ Breton met a young woman from the provinces who called herself Nadja because, she said, "in Russian it's the beginning of the word for hope, and because it's only the beginning." Their love affair was brief, intense, and intensely self-conscious. They both talked exuberantly of the book that Breton would make out of their days and nights. And indeed a year later (after Nadja was institutionalized and Breton had moved on to other love affairs) he began to write Nadja¡ªa book of memory and analysis taking its cue in part from Freud's case studies, but also a book of ingeniously intercut images, drawing on Surrealist ideas to portray a soul whose very way of being approaches, in Breton's words, "the extreme limit of the Surrealist aspiration."

In this, the first new translation of Nadja in more than sixty years, Mark Polizzotti captures the youthful excitement, the abiding strangeness, and above all the freshness of Breton's prose. He also provides an illuminating introduction about the fate of the real Nadja, whose identity remained jealously guarded until the twenty-first century.

A gripping tale of infatuation and a meditation on the surrealism of everyday life, Nadja is still a thing of convulsive beauty, impossible to pin or put down, a precursor to works of Julien Gracq, Julio Cort¨¢zar, and W.G. Sebald.

This edition of Nadja contains 44 images, which Breton ¡°conceived from the outset as an integral element of the narrative," as Mark Polizzotti writes in his introduction.
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  1. Print length
    160 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    NYRB Classics
  4. Publication date
    June 17 2025
  5. Dimensions
    12.67 x 1.17 x 20.27 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    1681379368
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1681379364
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Review

"The most remarkable of [Breton's] sorceresses is Nadja. She predicts the future; she conjures up words and images that spring to her friend's mind at the very same instant; and her dreams and sketches are oracular. She is a free spirit." ¡ªSimone de Beauvoir

"In Nadja, Andr¨¦ Breton does not express himself¡ªwhich self would that be anyway?¡ªor exploit himself; he surrenders himself... That is why Nadja is necessary, like a natural phenomenon." ¡ªRen¨¦ Daumal

"A deft new translation by Mark Polizzotti . . . Nearly a century later, Nadja still matters because it reminds us that true self-discovery derives not from grand visions or spiritual transformation but from these small interactions with the mundane that hint at the enchantment of an otherwise banal world." ¡ªBen Libman, The New York Times

About the Author

Andr¨¦ Breton (1896¨C1966), the son of a Norman policeman and a seamstress, studied medicine in Paris and was drafted to serve in World War I in 1915. While working on a neurological ward, he met Jacques Vach¨¦, a devotee of Alfred Jarry, and Vach¨¦'s rebellious spirit and suicide at the age of twenty-three would powerfully shape Breton's sensibility. Thanks to the auspices of Paul Val¨¦ry, Breton worked as an assistant to Marcel Proust, and in 1919, along with Philippe Soupault and Louis Aragon, he founded the journal Litt¨¦rature. The Magnetic Fields, the first book of automatic writing (published by NYRB Poets), appeared in 1920, and in 1924, having broken with Tristan Tzara and the Dadaists, Breton issued the Manifesto of Surrealism. Among his other major works are Anthology of Black Humor, Mad Love, and Surrealism and Painting.

Mark Polizzotti has translated more than sixty books from the French, including Arthur Rimbaud's The Drunken Boat: Selected Writings (NYRB Poets) and Jean Echenoz's Command Performance (NYRB Classics), and is the author of thirteen books, including Revolution of the Mind: The Life of Andr¨¦ Breton, Sympathy for the Traitor: A Translation Manifesto, Why Surrealism Matters, and Jump Cuts: Essays. He lives in New York.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ NYRB Classics
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 17 2025
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1681379368
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1681379364
  • Item weight ‏ : ‎ 159 g
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.67 x 1.17 x 20.27 cm
  • Â鶹Çø Rank: #273,835 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 177 ratings

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Andr¨¦ Breton

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4.6 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from Canada

  • Ilia Davidovich
    4.0 out of 5 stars A challenging read
    Reviewed in Canada on May 27, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    This book defies many literary rules. It's quite short, but even that is way too much text for the amount of story it conveys. The story on its own is nothing special, describing authors encounter with some eccentric woman with a Russian name Nadja. The first part of the book is tough to read thanks to too many cultural references that may have been relevant at the time the book was written. I have no idea why author had chosen to keep it in. I suspect this may have been a part of his diary at some point and later evolved into the novel, but who knows. The second part is the actual Nadja story and it's quite interesting to read, though it ends too abruptly. In conclusion, the author shares his views on psychiatry of the time and this part was the most interesting to me. Andre Breton served in neurological ward during WWI and his perspective is valuable on this subject.

    In conclusion, I think it's more interesting to think and talk about this book than to read it. Similar to dada and surrealist art, it may come off as somewhat lazy and superficial effort, but it's essential for anyone who's trying to expand their horizons to try and understand the motive behind it.
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  • listost
    3.0 out of 5 stars How did you get here? Where are you going?
    Reviewed in Canada on May 29, 2004
    The concept of rating does not apply to this book.. to Nadja. Hence, the neutral "3 stars". How do people come to read this book? Is it out of necessity, as in studying french literature? I guess it doesn't matter.
    Breton: "Pope of surrealism"; psychologist; culturally tied to theater, literature, fine art, and political movements; intellectual... elite.
    This book is in two parts. The first is automatic writing, meandering through cultural references, Parisien momunents and streets, and famous persons of his era. Its exercise is in hommage of his precursors (ie Rimbaud, Jung) and is scarcely cohesive. The second (starting at about the 70th page) is the portrayal of the ellusive "Nadja", which "feels" more like a novel (but not quite) as Breton and Nadja float through Paris, looking at a restaurant menu here, a fountain there. The importance may lie in Nadja's surreal portrayal... her dialogue (broken phrases, observations) is enigmatic.. She is an oracle, a ghost, an undefined aesthetic.
    I've seen teaching guides that advise leading students through the later pages of Nadja and only then return to the beginning .. I can see that as good advice to understand those first pages.
    Why would anyone want to read this book? I mean, surrealism is dead and buried (despite their distant protests). But it existed once.. it was during the writing of Nadja a virile and auspicious movement... squarely demonstrated --or reported-- as an art --a literary -- form in this book... Is there any value found here other than landmark... Is there any perennial human wisdom here?
    Nadja is not "necessarily" relevant today due to our distance from its culturally and politically rooted intentions.. It purely depends on the reader's knowledge of what Breton was trying to achieve here... and now, nearly eighty years later, the reader is not merely culturally challenged.. So reading it alongside a couple of essays... maybe getting some background info on Breton as well.. a little bio on the net, perhaps, might "help".
    But once the answer is found.... and how did you get here, and where are you going ....Once the pregnant artifices of this work are consummed, assimilated, rendered to ash.. the lingering ghost of Nadja remains... and its affects are... .
    One person found this helpful
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  • Timothy Gouldson
    1.0 out of 5 stars A surrealistic bomb
    Reviewed in Canada on January 15, 2018
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    A surrealistic bomb
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  • A. G. Plumb
    4.0 out of 5 stars artists and words
    Reviewed in Canada on July 22, 2003
    That Breton was an innovative designer and artist and poet is well appreciated but this book shows him to have been a fine writer as well. It also shows how a member of a radical group of artists can be driven by the same passions that probably afflict all of us during our lives. This passion of Breton's is extraordinary in its own way but I suspect we all have these seemingly unusual encounters in our lives. It takes a creative artist such as Breton to bring it to life. But in some ways he only brings it half to life. While he does have a fascination with 'Nadja' - the name being the first part of the Russian word for hope - his wife remains firmly in the background and not withheld, and yet her involvement is completely untold, even unspeculated on. What type of relationship Breton and his wife had we can only speculate about. In the end this is quite a sad story, but then I suspect most of the passions we all feel for the 'extras' in our own lives are inevitably tinged with sadness and unfulfilment. So for me, Breton has captured something here that is quite magical.
    One person found this helpful
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  • veganvamp
    4.0 out of 5 stars Very insightful
    Reviewed in Canada on December 23, 1997
    Nadja is one of Breton's best works in the way that it portrays the male/female relationship within the surrealist movement. Nadja is both a source of entertainment and enlightenment for Breton, though I saw her more as another way of objectifying the female figure in surrealist work. I loved the description and concentration on Nadja's character. On the other hand, the first several chapters of the book are almost cumbersome to all who want to get into the 'meat' of the text (I found them interesting, but some of my colleagues didn't). One thing that I must say about this work is that I don't believe that it functions as a love story, though many people that review the text feel that it does. Instead, I see it more as an interesting snapshot of relationship issues (in a surreal light) but not necessarily love issues. Another masterful work by the leader of surrealism.
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  • trevor hubbert
    5.0 out of 5 stars Nadja
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 9, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Arrived before stated time. Not quite as surreal as I hoped but, hey, that's fish for you.
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  • Client d'Â鶹Çø
    5.0 out of 5 stars Parfait
    Reviewed in France on January 15, 2021
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    Parfait
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  • Lynn Hoffman, author:Radiation Days: A Comedy
    5.0 out of 5 stars Reread in the 21st Century. . . .
    Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2007
    Verified Purchase
    This was my second reading of Nadja. The first time, I read it looking for fiction inspired by cities. I expected, and found, a story about Paris. The narrator's mad desire for Nadja who is herself quite mad is punctuated by the thoroughly plain unpeopled photographs of the city. Breton's descriptions of the city's streets are luminous and they play off the fuzzy, gaussian blur of the pictures. What's the connection between these two worlds: the literary and the graphic? The connection is loose, suggestive, less than allegorical. Its tone was urban, urbane too but it would be hard to say just why these two realities were in the same novel. In fact, that loose connection defined for many people the idea of the surreal.
    On this second reading-maybe thirty years later-the madness predominates. The narrator's passion is there, raw and a trifle obscene (but fun). So is the narrator's wife who seems to exist in a moral vacuum away from Nadja and her lover. Nadja, of course, is still mad, but now her madness seems less adventuresome and creative and more forced and quite sad. The pictures too seem to point to a poverty of spirit. ( I realize that we are seeing the photographs in translation too: a translation to an offset printed page. Perhaps the originals have a different feel.)
    I think that perhaps the shock of the connection between crazed and creative has worn off a bit. We are also forced to remember that these ultra-cool surrealists presided over a scene that slipped quickly into nazism and concentration camps.
    Breton is still brilliant on the page, the suggested connections-the things left unsaid still beg us to fill them in. But we are older now and this story seems more sad than audacious-like the blueprint for a kind of world that just didn't work out.

    Lynn Hoffman, author of bang BANG: A Novel
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  • Customer - VS
    5.0 out of 5 stars Everything fades, Everything vanishes,Something must remain of us.
    Reviewed in India on September 22, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    1. Content - 5/5
    In my opinion one of the best book ever written. The way Andre Breton narrated/written/presented the story was new to me(I cant comment on translation because i do not know french). Such a realistic book. Philosophy and reality in one book
    Everything fades, Everything vanishes,Something must remain of us.

    2. Packaging - 5/5
    3. Book Quality - 3/5
    4. Quality of printing - 2/5 (for 699/- I paid such a terrible printing)
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    5.0 out of 5 stars ¥Õ¥é¥ó¥¹Óï¤Ç´ìÕÛ¤·¤¿Ë½¤Ë¤³¤½.
    Reviewed in Japan on November 14, 2010
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    ¤³¤ì¤òÕi¤ó¤À¹ó·½¤Ï,¹ó·½¤Ê¤ê¤Î,ÈÕ±¾ÓïÔU¤ò,±Ø¤º¼û¤Ä¤±¤ë¤³¤È¤¬¤Ç¤­¤ë,
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