The concept of the Absurd was a source of fascination for artists and intellectuals throughout the twentieth century. Two interpretations in particular were to provide major reference points for French writers in the 1920s and 1930s: the Surrealist 'free functioning of thought', and the existential critique of rational discourse elaborated by Leon Chestov (1866-1938) and Benjamin Fondane (1898-1944). In this highly original study, Fotiade examines the less familiar existential line, and shows that Chestov and Fondane's project found support and illustration in the force-field of the Surrealist movement. The work of such dissident writers as Antonin Artaud, Roger Gilbert-Lecomte and Rene Daumal takes on entirely new meanings when considered in this wider intellectual context.