Mad Love

Who is Jacqueline Lamba from Mad Love and what is their importance?

Asked by
Last updated by Cat
1 Answers
Log in to answer

This is French artist and Breton's second wife. She was also the mother of Breton's daughter Aube Breton. Breton's seeing and meeting Lamba for the first time is described in Mad Love, and the book is an exploration of how this relationship shaped Breton's thinking about love and about his poetry. Breton and Lamba separated in 1943, six years after Mad Love was published. Breton does not mention Lamba by name in the book, but refers to "l'Ondine." Breton first mentions "l'Ondine" in Section 1 when describing a pun the staff at a restaurant make: in French, "Ici, l'Ondine" and "Ici, on dine". "l'Ondine," or "l'undine" is the French word for water nymph, and one of Lamba's jobs is as a dancing mermaid in an underwater show. In Section 4, when Breton analyzes his poem "Sunflower" he pauses on the phrase "seems to swim." A photograph of a woman underwater accompanies the text.