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by Salvador Dali (Author), Haakon Chevalier (Translator)
The only novel by the twentieth century's most acclaimed surrealist painter, a richly visual depiction of a group of eccentric aristocrats in the years preceding World War II
"The book is so full of visual invention, so witty, so charged with an almost Dickensian energy that it's difficult not to accept its author's own arrogant evaluation of himself as a genius." -- Observer In swirling, surreal prose, the iconic artist Salvador Dalí portrays the intrigues and love affairs of a group of eccentric aristocrats who, in their luxury and extravagance, symbolize decadent Europe in the 1930s. In the shadow of encroaching war, their tangled lives provide a thrilling vehicle for Dalí's uniquely spirited imagination and artistic vision. Hidden Faces beckons readers to enter the bizarre world already familiar to us from Dali's paintings. The story unfolds in vividly visual terms, beginning in the Paris riots of February 1934. The journey leading to the closing days of the Second World War constitutes a brilliant and dramatic vehicle for Dali's unique vision. "Start the first page and you are in the presence of an old-fashioned baroque novel, intelligent, extravagant, as photographically precise as his paintings but not so silly ... Dali notices everything ..." -- GuardianAuthor Biography
Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) was one of the most colourful and controversial figures in 20th century art, renowned for his striking Surrealist painting style. He was strongly influenced by the writings of Sigmund Freud, as well as the Paris Surrealists who sought to establish the "greater reality" of the human subconscious over reason. Some of his most famous works include The Persistence of Memory, and the two Surrealist films Un Chien andalou (The Andalusian Dog) and L'Âge d'or (The Golden Age), made with the Spanish director Luis Buñuel. Hidden Faces is his only novel, and was first published in 1944.
Haakon Chevalier was an American writer, translator and professor of French literature at the University of California, Berkely. He translated many works by Salvador Dalí, André Malraux, Vladimir Pozner, Louis Aragon, Frantz Fanon and Victor Vasarely into English.
