Section 4 Summary and Analysis

Section 4 relates Breton's first encounter with Jacqueline Lamba, the love about whom much of Mad Love addresses. Despite her centrality, she remains unnamed throughout the book. Having ended the previous section thinking about the death instinct associated with a failed relationship, Breton begins Section 4 by stating his fears of falling into the unknown.

The description of the Lamba is one of the most important passages of the book where "This young woman who just entered appeared to be swathed in mist - clothed in fire? Everything seemed colorless and frozen next to this complexion imagined in perfect concord between rust and green: ancient Egypt, a tiny, unforgettable fern climbing the inside wall of an ancient well, the deepest, most somber, and most extensive of all those that I have ever leaned over, in the ruins of Villeneuve of all those that...