louis aragon

Le Libertinage (1924) was a collection of very short stories, fragmentary episodes pieced together in the manner of a Surrealist collage. In the preface Aragon wrote: "I have sought the illusion of having infinite power over the world, as others seek it in opium. Events yielded to my will. I retouched the good Lord and gave him whiskers." In 'The Big Torus' Aragon juxtaposed the preparations for a wedding with the images of emerging war. "Blood flows in the rebellious town. Now the man is looking at a patch of stars and the bride's white stockings are raised up over her thighs. Shadows dance in the wind."

Aragon's novel Le paysan de Paris (1926) mythologized the arcades and parks of Paris. Aragon tired to create a new kind of novel "that would break all the traditional rules governing the writing of fiction, one that would be neither a narrative (a story) nor a character study (a portrait)..." The work celebrated the city as a place of stimulating encounters in its cafés and parks. For a modern reader Paris appears rather idyllic and innocent with its chorus girls and artists, bar rooms and commercial travellers. "Turn round, and see, there right opposite is the little restaurant where, in our progress towards the depths of the imagination, I fond the last traces of the Dada movement. When Saulnier seemed too expensive for us, we used to come here, appeasing our inopportune appetites as best we could with food cooked in rancid coconut oil and with their sharp, unpleasant wine, consumed in a stuffy, vulgar atmosphere

jean jaques rousseau

Reveries of a Solitary Walker
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Reveries of a Solitary Walker (or Reveries of the Solitary Walker, French title: Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire) is an unfinished book by French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, written between 1776 and 1778. It was the last of a number of works composed toward the end of his life which were deeply autobiographical in nature. Previous elements in this group included The Confessions and Dialogues: Rousseau Judge of Jean-Jacques. The book is divided into ten chapters called Walks. The Eighth Walk and Ninth Walk were completed, but not revised by Rousseau, and the Tenth Walk was incomplete at Rousseau's death. The first publication was in 1782.
The content of the book is a mix of autobiographical anecdote, descriptions of the sights, especially plants, that Rousseau saw in his walks around Paris, and elaborations and extensions of arguments previously made by Rousseau in fields like education and political philosophy.