"Nadja, " originally published in France in 1928, is the first and perhaps best Surrealist romance ever written, a book which defined that movement's attitude toward everyday life. The principal narrative is an account of the author's relationship with a girl in teh city of Paris, the story of an obsessional presence haunting his life. The first-person narrative is supplemented by forty-four photographs which form an integral part of the work -- pictures of various "surreal" people, places, and objects which the author visits or is haunted by in naja's presence and which inspire him to mediate on their reality or lack of it. "The Nadja of the book is a girl, but, like Bertrand Russell's definition of electricity as "not so much a thing as a way things happen, " Nadja is not so much a person as the way she makes people behave. She has been described as a state of mind, a feeling about reality, k a kind of vision, and the reader sometimes wonders whether she exists at all. yet it is Nadja who gives form and structure to the novel.

A Vogue Best Book of the Year "What Ferrante did for female friends—exploring the tumult and complexity their relationships could hold—Spiegelman sets out to do for mothers and daughters. She’s essentially written My Brilliant Mom." —Slate A memoir of mothers and daughters—and mothers as daughters—traced through four generations, from Paris to New York and back again. For a long time, Nadja Spiegelman believed her mother was a fairy. More than her famous father, Maus creator Art Spiegelman, and even more than most mothers, hers—French-born New Yorker art director Françoise Mouly—exerted a force over reality that was both dazzling and daunting. As Nadja’s body changed and “began to whisper to the adults around me in a language I did not understand,” their relationship grew tense. Unwittingly, they were replaying a drama from her mother’s past, a drama Nadja sensed but had never been told. Then, after college, her mother suddenly opened up to her. Françoise recounted her turbulent adolescence caught between a volatile mother and a playboy father, one of the first plastic surgeons in France. The weight of the difficult stories she told her daughter shifted the balance between them. It had taken an ocean to allow Françoise the distance to become her own person. At about the same age, Nadja made the journey in reverse, moving to Paris determined to get to know the woman her mother had fled. Her grandmother’s memories contradicted her mother’s at nearly every turn, but beneath them lay a difficult history of her own. Nadja emerged with a deeper understanding of how each generation reshapes the past in order to forge ahead, their narratives both weapon and defense, eternally in conflict. Every reader will recognize herself and her family in I'm Supposed to Protect You From All This, a gorgeous and heartbreaking memoir that helps us to see why sometimes those who love us best hurt us most.

Unlock the more straightforward side of Nadja with this concise and insightful summary and analysis! This engaging summary presents an analysis of Nadja by André Breton, which tells the story of the author’s encounters with the titular character over a period of several days. The book stands out for its highly original style: it combines autobiographical and novelistic elements, incorporates a series of photographs and drawings alongside the text, and uses language in a highly unusual and inventive way. Nadja was first published in 1928 and is one of the most influential works of the French Surrealist movement, of which Breton was the leading figure. This movement flourished in the aftermath of the First World War, and sought to challenge conventions and conformism in literature, film, music and the visual arts. André Breton was a poet, novelist and essayist, and wrote dozens of books and essays, including The Surrealist Manifesto and The Magnetic Fields. Find out everything you need to know about Nadja in a fraction of the time! This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you: • A complete plot summary • Character studies • Key themes and symbols • Questions for further reflection Why choose BrightSummaries.com? Available in print and digital format, our publications are designed to accompany you on your reading journey. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time. See the very best of literature in a whole new light with BrightSummaries.com!

The protagonists of this story are Franco and Nadja, whose relationship begins as a chance, lunchtime encounter in a bar not far from the small hilltop town of Montelorenzo in southern Tuscany. Franco comes from an established, artisan family in the town and, although university educated, follows in his father’s footsteps as a cabinet maker. Nadja is a spirited and determined but anxious young woman with an ever-present phobia. Since her mother died giving birth to her, she was brought up by her father, a fervent Communist who named her Nadja after the wives of both Lenin and Stalin. Nadja is short for Nadezhda, which means ‘Hope’ in Russian. The story illustrates the legacy of history and the lasting effect it has on all our lives. Nadja becomes, both literally and metaphorically, Franco’s Hope, until the Three Fates of Greek mythology intervene.

The talented and flamboyant violinist describes her childhood, education and training at Juilliard, and concert performances around the world.

One of Italy's greatest and most popular writers offers three witty, fantastical stories, each dominated by one of three senses--taste, hearing, or smell.