A man tests the limits of what is possible in life and love in this early twentieth-century novel.

Introduction: The Golden Excrement of the Avant-Garde
Rapture
Notes

Iliazd (1894-1975) is the nom de plume of Ilia Zdanevich, an émigré who arrived in Paris after the Russian Civil War in time to participate in the last days of Paris Dada and the birth of surrealism. Unable to publish his writing, Iliazd forged a new career in book art, gaining fame for the series of artists' books he published under the "41 degrees" imprint. He collaborated with Picasso, Chagall, Matisse, Legér, Giacometti, Miró, and Max Ernst, among others, on books of his own poetry, anthologies of "nonsense" poetry from all ages and traditions, and works by rediscovered poets, travelers, and romantic astronomers. Iliazd has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Centre Georges Pompidou (1978) and the Museum of Modern Art (1987).
Thomas J. Kitson is a freelance translator in New York City. He holds a Ph.D. in Russian literature from Columbia University.