L'Armoire à glace un beau soir is a play which emerged as the door closed on dada and that to surrealism opened. It displays the impulse to break new ground while continuing to express trust in instincts founded in Aragon's dada past. (p. 50)

In L'Armoire à glace un beau soir, the opening roster of characters admits us into the world of the play. The names are largely generic. La Femme, Le Soldat, Le Général, Le Président, Les Deux Soeurs. Even the names Jules, Lenore, and Mme. Léon are fairly unspecific. One pauses, however, at the name Théodore Fraenkel as if suddenly finding a breathing body among a pile of puppets. Here Aragon plays his first card, for Fraenkel was a real person: a staunch member of the surrealist group and a childhood friend of Breton who had participated in all the dada manifestations. The appearance...