CHARLES CROS (1842-1888) was one of the most brilliant minds of his generation, equally adept at poetry, fiction, and scientific inquiry. He wrote smutty verses with Verlaine, synthesized gems with Alphonse Allais, contributed wild prose fantasies to LE CHAT NOIR, and experimented with color photography and sound recording, only to die young, poor, and alcoholic. Not incidentally, he also invented the comic monologue for the actor Coquelin Cadet. In these strikingly spontaneous and modern sketches, he introduces a gallery of fools and obsessives-The Clean Man, The Fencing Master, The Capitalist, The Friend of the Family-all nattering away, assaulting the audience with trivia, and blithely unaware of their own failings. This edition collects all 22 of Cros’s monologues, most translated for the first time, as well as performance notes by Coquelin and two biographical essays by his friend and colleague Alphonse Allais. The sheer playfulness of certain fanciful parts of Cros’s work must not let us forget that in the center of some of his finest poems, a revolver is aimed at us. -Andre Breton