A Dream –– by Xavier Forneret

     Xavier Forneret was among the most experimental writers of the dark, gothic-inspired avant-garde subgenre known as Frenetic Romanticism. He burned through his arist-ocratic inheritance by self-publishing his work, which remained unknown beyond the lunatic fringe of the Romanticist movement, as he lived in near-isolation in the decaying family seat in the provincial region of Beaune. Later, the Surrealists drew inspiration from the Frenetics’ exploration of the irrational and the dream state, including Forneret’s work such as this nightmarish prose-poem from 1840, printed only on the recto side of each page, according to his directions in the prefatory remarks, included here.

André Breton, in The Anthology of Black Humour:
     “I maintain without hesitation that there exists a Forneret case, whose persistent enigma would justify patient and systematic research . . . Forneret’s style, moreover, seems to foreshadow Lautréamont’s, just as his repertoire of fresh and daring images already announces Saint-Pol-Roux.”

Cover image by Louis Boulanger.

16 pgs on folded 8.5”x11”, printed on recto side only. Nov., 2024/A.Da. 108/A.H. 194
$0.75 + s/h