Aragon, Louis (lwē ärägôN`), 1897–1982, French writer. One of the founders of surrealism surrealism (sərē`əlĭzəm)
..... Click the link for more information. in literature, Aragon abandoned that philosophy for Marxism after a trip to the USSR in 1931. He was a leader of the Resistance during World War II, and he edited the radical Paris daily Ce Soir and later the Communist weekly Les Lettres françaises. Aragon's early works include the volume of poems Feu de joie (1920) and the surrealistic novel Le Paysan de Paris (1926, tr. Nightwalker, 1970). His cycle of social novels concerning political responsibility are translated as The Bells of Basel (1934, tr. 1941), Residential Quarter (1936, tr. 1938), The Century Was Young (1941, tr. 1941), and Aurelien (1945, tr. 1947). Les Communistes, the first of his five-volume cycle of realistic novels, appeared in 1949. His later works include a novel about the artist Jean Louis Géricault Géricault, Jean Louis André Théodore (zhäN lwē äNdrā` tāōdôr` zhārēkō`)
..... Click the link for more information. , Holy Week (1958, tr. 1961); a history of the USSR from 1917 to 1960, Histoire parallèle (1962, tr. 1964); the novel La Mise à mort (1965); and a two-volume memoir of Matisse (1972). His major works of poetry include Le Crève-coeur (1941), war poems; the series of love poems to his wife, the novelist Triolet Triolet, Elsa (Elsa Blick) (ĕlsä` trēôlĕ`), c.1896–1970, Russian-French author, b. Moscow.
..... Click the link for more information. : Les Yeux d'Elsa (1954), Elsa (1959), and Le Fou d'Elsa (1963); and Les Chambres (1969).

Bibliography

See Louis Aragon, Poet of the French Resistance (ed. by H. Josephson and M. Cowley, 1945); study by L. F. Becker (1971).

Aragon, Louis

orig. Louis Andrieux

(born Oct. 3, 1897, Paris, Fr.—died Dec. 24, 1982, Paris) French poet, novelist, and essayist. He was introduced by André Breton into avant-garde circles, and the two cofounded the Surrealist review Littérature in 1919. From 1927 he was increasingly a political activist and spokesman for communism, which resulted in a break with the Surrealists. Among his works are the novel tetralogy Le Monde réel, 4 vol. (1933–44), describing the class struggle of the proletariat; the huge novel Les Communistes, 6 vol. (1949–51); novels of veiled autobiography; and volumes of poems expressing patriotism and love for his wife. He was editor of the communist weekly of arts and literature, Les Lettres françaises, 1953–72.