{"product_id":"raymond-roussel-and-the-republic-of-dreams-9780801438646","title":"Raymond Roussel and the Republic of Dreams","description":"\u003cp\u003eRaymond Roussel  one of the most outlandishly compelling literary figures of modern times  died in mysterious circumstances at the age of fifty-six in 1933. The story Mark Ford tells about Roussels life and work is at once captivating  heartbreaking  and almost beyond belief. Could even Proust or Nabokov have invented a character as strange and memorable as the exquisite dandy and graphomaniac this book brings to life? Roussels poetry  novels  and plays influenced the work of many well-known writers and artists: Jean Cocteau found in him \"genius in its pure state \" while Salvador Dal  who died with a copy of Roussels Impressions dAfrique on his bedside table  believed him to be one of Frances greatest writers ever. Edmond Rostand  Marcel Duchamp  Andr Breton  Michel Foucault  and Alain Robbe-Grillet all testified to the power of his unique imagination. By any standards  Roussel led an extraordinary life. Tremendously wealthy  he took two world tours during which he hardly left his hotel rooms. He never wore his clothes more than twice  and generally avoided conversation because he dreaded that it might turn morbid. Ford  himself a poet  traces the evolution of Roussels bizarre compositional methods and describes the idiosyncrasies of a life structured as obsessively as Roussel structured his writing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45648251387957,"sku":"ByrdShop_0801438640","price":61.82,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780801438646.jpg?v=1781713761","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/raymond-roussel-and-the-republic-of-dreams-9780801438646","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}