Fiction. Translated from the French by John Ashbery. Pierre Reverdy's short story HAUNTED HOUSE, originally published in 1930 in a collection of prose tales called Risques et Perils, is very different from his typically oblique, allusive and dreamlike poetry. Rife with mock rhetorical grandeur and ironic asides, HAUNTED HOUSE was lauded and included in André Breton's list of ten books he would take to a desert island. Translator John Ashbery is the author of numerous volumes of poetry and has translated the works of Stéphane Mallarmé, Giorgio de Chirico, Raymond Roussel, Max Jacob and Alfred Jarry.

Pierre Reverdy (13 September 1889 - 17 June 1960) was a French poet associated with surrealism and cubism. Pierre Reverdy was born in Narbonne and grew up near the Montagne Noire in his father's house. Reverdy came from a family of sculptors. His father taught him to read and write. He studied at Toulouse and Narbonne. Reverdy arrived in Paris in October 1910. It was there, at the famous Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre that he met Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Louis Aragon, André Breton, Philippe Soupault and Tristan Tzara. For sixteen years, Reverdy lived for his writing. Reclusive by nature, Reverdy began to distance himself from these circles, and in 1926, at the age of 37, he left Paris, converted to Catholicism and went to live in Solesmes, home of the great St. Peter's Abbey. He stayed there until his death in 1960.