I came to this book with a lifetime interest in Surrealism and a minor contribution to the field some 35 years ago with a dissertation entitled "Images of the City in Surrealist Literature" So I was very interested to come across this new entry. This is much more a social history than art or literary history. Roe details how the Surrealist movement came together in the chaos of WWI (most of the Surrealists served in the military in some capacity), its proponents exposed to the anarchy of Dada, which had evolved in Zurich, they coalesced as a fractious movement around the theoretical underpinnings around the grand wizard of surrealism, Andre Breton. Breton was a student of Freudian psychology, spiritualism and the writings of poet and playwright Guilaume Apollinaire , who invented the word Surrealism, Breton and evolved a complicated theroretical underpinning for the idea of Surrealism, which the other adherents generally took as they pleased. Max Ernst, Paul Eluard, Man Ray, Louis Aragon, Marcel Duchamp, Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali were all key acolytes, while the likes of Pablo Picasso, Giorgio De Chirico and Rene Magritte were fellow-travelers who absorbed the principles of Surrealism without subjecting themselves to Breton's theoretical overlordship. The book focuses as closely on the social lives of the Surrealists as much as their art, it was famously incestuous, with girlfriends, mistresses and wives circulating among what was a ferociously chauvinist group. The many disputes, arguments and outright break-ups among the group are also documented, as Breton punished those he considered impure ideologically, although the ideology itself shifted and fractured almost continuously. This is a fascinating work to read 100 years on from the foundation of the movement, which although relatively short-lived in itself, has had an enormous and continuing influence on art, literature, film and society itself. The continuing popularity of artists like Dali, Magritte and Duchamp has kept the spirit of the movement alive long past the ideological ambitions of Breton. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in art, the social history of post-war Paris or just a great gossipy read about free-spirited and licentious bohemians. ( )