Impressions of Africa

Although never a member of the official surrealist movement, Raymond Roussel is undoubtedly one of the most important surrealist writers. A contemporary of Marcel Proust, he is beginning to be considered a writer whose influence could well be of the same importance, and such modern innovators as Alain Robbe-Grillet and Eugene Ionesco have acknowledged their debt to him as one of the principle fathers of the nouveau roman and the 'theatre of the absurd'. Raymond Roussel wrote several novels, some in verse and some in prose, and Impressions of Africa is the first of the two major prose works. It makes easy and enjoyable reading, being an adventure story put together in a highly individual fashion with an unusual time sequence, making use of fortuitous wit and jeux de mots and using all the surrealist techniques of automatic writing and private allusion, that while not spoiling the enjoyment of the casual reader add an extra dimension to the book for the student of literature.