Locus Solus

The author of the novel Locus Solus is Raymond Roussel, a well-known French writer who strongly influenced the surrealist group at its inception. Jan Švankmajer supplemented this Czech edition of the book with 13 illustrations. The book is signed by Jan Švankmajer

Raymond Roussel posthumously revealed the method of creation of the novel Locus Solus, as well as African Impressions and his other works, in his text How I Wrote Certain of My Books. It arose from a formal constraint that the author followed, where he took two similar words, added to them words that were the same but had two meanings, thus obtaining two almost identical sentences, on the basis of which he then built the entire text. The distinguished scientist and inventor Martial Canterel invites a group of his colleagues and friends to visit his country estate Locus Solus. He presents increasingly bizarre inventions to the visitors, culminating in a tableau vivant, actually represented by dead people revived with a liquid called resurrectine, which, when injected into a fresh corpse, forces it to repeat the most important event of its life. Raymond Roussel, misunderstood and disparaged during his lifetime, yet a completely original author whose work received negative reactions, eventually won the admiration of surrealist groups and other avant-garde authors.

The creation of this book was initiated by the Raymond Roussel Society, which approached Jan Švankmajer.