SOURCE: Balakian, Anna. “Anicet, or the pursuit of pulchérie.” In Symbolism and Modern Literature, edited by Marcel Tetel, pp. 237-47. North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1978.

In the following essay, Balakian argues that Aragon's first published prose work, Anicet, cemented his importance to twentieth-century art and literature by “igniting” the “spirit of surrealism.”

Among the astonishing areas of neglect in the criticism of twentieth-century literature is the substantial work of Aragon. The oversight is the more surprising in the light of resurgent interest in Dada and surrealism, extending to collateral references such as Jarry, Roussel, and Artaud. André Breton has fared better, although the current scholarly attention to narrative has overstressed the importance of Nadja and underestimated Breton's poetry.

In perspective, Aragon may well loom as the Victor Hugo of this century, and with luck and good health he may well make it to 1985. Like his predecessor he...