Alfred Jarry. Three Early Novels. Collected Works II. Absolute Love, Days and Nights, Exploits and Opinions of Doctor Faustroll, Pataphysician: Edited by Alastair Brotchie and Paul Edwards. Translations by Alexis Lykiard, Simon Watson Taylor, and Paul Edwards

International audienceIn a short and legendary life, Alfred Jarry (1873-1907) created a unique and large body of work that included plays, novels, poetry, journalism and other less definable texts and speculations. His writings form the essential bridge between the European avant-garde of the 1890s (Symbolism) and those of the 20th century (Futurism, Dada, Surrealism). In the last fifty years his influence has scarcely faltered, and in particular his science of ’Pataphysics has informed the recent writings of Deleuze, Baudrillard and Eco, among many others. The College of ’Pataphysics, founded in his honour, has numbered among its members such luminaries as Cortazar, Duchamp, Ionesco, Leiris, Queneau and most of the other writers of the "Oulipo". Despite this influence, Jarry is still best known in English as the author of Ubu Roi; the aim of this three-volume Collected Works is to make the totality of his major writings available in English for the first time