Having broken decisively with Marxism in the mid-1930s, Breton repeatedly addresses the horrors of the Stalinist regime (which denounced him during the Moscow trials of 1936). He argues for the autonomy of art and poetry and condemns the subservience to "revolutionary" aims exemplified by socialist realism. Other articles reflect on aesthetic issues, cinema, music, and education and provide detailed meditations on the literary, artistic, and philosophical topics for which he is best known. Free Rein will prove indispensable for students of Breton, surrealism, and modern French and European culture.

Michel Parmentier is a professor of French at Bishop's University, Québec. He is the author of Mise au point and Regards contemporains: Textes d'actualité québécoise. He is coauthor with Jacqueline d'Amboise of Second Regards, Récits récents, and Nouvelles nouvelles: Fictions du Québec contemporain. Jacqueline d'Amboise is an independent poet and translator. She is the author of Mother Myths, a book of poems.