The definitive chronicle of the origins of French avant-garde literature
and art, Roger Shattuck's classic portrays the cultural bohemia of
turn-of-the-century Paris who carried the arts into a period of renewal
and accomplishment and laid the groundwork for Dadaism and Surrealism.
Shattuck focuses on the careers of Alfred Jarry, Henri Rousseau, Erik
Satie, and Guillaume Apollinaire, using the quartet as window into the
era as he exploring a culture whose influence is at the very foundation
of modern art.