Aragon, Louis

Aragon, Louis (1897-1982), French novelist, poet, and essayist, born in Paris. He was a leader of the French literary movements known as Dada and Surrealism. During the early years of his career he wrote a number of experimental works, including the collection of poems Feu de joie (Bonfire, 1920) and the long essay Traité du style (Treatise on Style, 1928). In 1930 he embraced the political doctrines of communism and the related aesthetic doctrine of socialist realism. Thereafter he was one of the most active French Communist propagandists, editing a Communist newspaper after World War II, during which he was a leading figure in the French Resistance.

Aragon's novels, realistic pictures of modern France, include Les Cloches de Bâle (1934; The Bells of Basel 1936), Les Beaux Quartiers (1936; Residential Quarter 1938), Aurélien (1945; trans. 1946), and Holy Week (1958; trans. 1961). His lyric post-Surrealistic poetry includes The Red Front (1931; trans. 1933), Le Crève-coeur (1941; Heartbreak 1943), and Les Yeux d'Elsa (1942; The Eyes of Elsa 1944).