The Automatic Muse collects together four remarkable novels from the early days of Surrealism - the 1920's, when the group was experimenting with "automatic writing" and other methods of "forcing inspiration.". Despite, or because of, the methods used in their composition these works are remarkable for the differences between them. They are variously mysterious, comic, astonishing, wildly extravagant. Yet they all share a feeling for the marvellous, and a literary style totally unrestrained by the conventions of "literature." Their potent vitality is an ample demonstration of the Surrealist programme and its belief in "the total liberation of man."