Misfortunes of the Immortals is Paul Éluard and Max Ernst’s second Surrealist collaboration. Their first was Repetitions, a poetry collection.

In Misfortunes of the Immortals the image was no longer relegated to the function of mere illustration. Ernst and Éluard reversed the process, so that instead of starting with a text that would need an illustration, Ernst created collages and Éluard would then write texts based on the images.

The publication of Misfortunes of the Immortals in 1922 coincided with the transition of Dadaism to Surrealism in Paris.

This is the first twenty-first century English translation of Misfortunes of the Immortals and it reveals that the collaboration between Éluard and Ernst was a successful attempt to create surprising juxtapositions and to negate the notion of the singular author.

Book details:

Title: Misfortunes of the Immortals
Author: Paul Éluard
Illustrator: Max Ernst
Translator: R J Dent
ISBN: 978-1-4452-4683-3
Language: English & French (Bilingual Edition)
Pages: 50
Format: Paperback
Dimensions: 6 x 9 in / 152 x 229 mm,
Publisher: Incunabula
Publication Date: September 9th, 2024

Misfortunes of the Immortals at Incunabula: https://incunabulamedia.com/surreality

Misfortunes of the Immortals at Lulu.com: https://www.lulu.com/shop/paul-eluard-and-max-ernst-and-r-j-dent/misfortunes-of-the-immortals/paperback/product-yvn6er6.html?q=Misfortunes&page=1&pageSize=4