In These Lowly Objects, Cate McGowan has fashioned one of the great fictional characters of our time in Jules Lalande, Dadaist extraordinaire. From his Dickensian childhood alongside a second cousin (and later, wife), Isobel, McGowan tracks--in rich, rigorous prose--the Zelig-like Lalande's wanderings through fin de siáecle Paris as he rubs elbows with Degas and Câezanne, fights in World War I, lands in New York with Breton, becomes a professional boxer, hangs out with Duchamp, and disappears in Cuba--or does he? Enter this remarkably imagined, enchanted world and discover the many delights of McGowan's marvelous creation.