Collection: French Lit in Translation

NY: Doubleday, 1965. Hardcover. 8vo. 183pp. Stated First Edition. Two-tone yellow and black boards, with gilt spine titles. NF/VG. A touch of shelfwear at spine ends, light dust soiling to top of textblock. In an unclipped $3.95 jacket with a 1/4" closed tear at top of... More

A charming English-language edition of Apollinaire's 1911 book of quatrains about the animal world, illustrated with the original Raoul Dufy woodcuts. Translated by Pepe Karmel; French text below the translations. Boston: David R. Godine, 1980. 12mo (7.25 x 5 in.); xi + 66pp.; thin brick-red... More

First English-language translation of this key Surrealist text, originally published in France in 1924. Translated by Frederick Brown. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970. First edition. Octavo, 9-1/8 x 6 in. 176pp. Decorative papered boards backed with blue cloth; gilt spine titles; dust jacket. Spine gilt... More

NY: Herder and Herder, 1971. Translated by Ellen Fox, with a foreword by Edouard Roditi. First edition. Small 8vo; red cloth; gilt spine titles; dust jacket. xxii, 170pp. Light bleeding to board cloth from water exposure; tidemarks to textblock top and fore-edge; spotting to first... More

Marlboro, VT: Marlboro Press, 1992. First edition. 309pp. 8vo; teal cloth; gilt spine titles. Light spotting to board cloth, mainly along top edge. Else near fine in a fine, unclipped jacket. First American edition of this youthful Europe-to-Asia travelog, originally self-published in French in 1963... More

First English language edition of Breton's surrealist philosophy of love. Translated by Mary Ann Caws. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1987. First edition. Octavo, 7-3/4 x 5-5/8 in. xvii, 129pp. Purple cloth stamped in gilt on spine and front board; dust jacket. Former owner's... More

London: John Calder, 1961. 8vo. Light green, textured paper boards; gold spine lettering; in dust jacket. 187pp. A few minor dings to the base of the textblock, else very fine: neat, sharp, and unmarked. In a very good (+) price-clipped jacket, with moderate edgewear, and... More

Neville Spearman, London, 1969. Hardcover. Small 8vo. 202pp. First edition. Translated from the French by Margaret Crosland. Textured red paper boards with gilt spine titles. Very light bumping at spine ends, a hint of dust soiling to bottom board edges, else very near fine. Unclipped... More

NY: New Directions, 1954. First edition thus. Octavo (8.25 x 5.75 in.); xxxvii + 347pp.; blue cloth boards, in dust jacket. A touch of (adhesive?) soiling to bottom front corner, softening to base of spine. Else very fine in a fine jacket, price-clipped and with... More

Sharp first edition of the French philosopher's first book to appear in English translation: an abridged version of his 1961 doctoral thesis, which tracks the shifting conceptions of madness and reason from the Renaissance to the Modern Age. Informed by Foucault's own struggles with mental... More

NY: New Directions, 1949. Small octavo (7.5 x 5 in.); 176pp.; blue cloth boards, in dust jacket. Mild toning to edges of textblock, else fine in a very good (+) jacket, with moderate toning, particularly to spine panel and flap fore-edges. An attractive second edition... More

Early English-language printing of the French writer's autobiography, an immediate best-seller praised by the likes of Genet and Camus, which details her numerous affairs with men and women, among them several members of the French literary elite. Translated by Derek Coltman, with a preface by... More

First printing of this collection in translation of writings by the French painter and poet. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2007. First edition. Translated by Marc Lowenthal. Square octavo, 9-1/4 x 7-1/4 in. viii, 478pp., with bibliography. Oatmeal cloth boards, black spine titles; in dust... More

NY: Albert & Charles Boni, 1930. Octavo. Decorative black boards, yellow quarter-cloth; dust jacket. 379pp. Some rubbing to the gold text on the black paper spine label, else fine in a near fine jacket with several short closed edge-tears and light wear at spine ends. Original... More

NY: Albert & Charles Boni, 1932. 8vo. Black boards stamped in brown and backed with brown cloth; black and gilt spine titles; dust jacket. 402pp. Boards worn, with some loss of paper at corners; a few spots of soiling to textblock top. Unclipped ("$3.00") jacket... More

London: Gaberbocchus Press, 1958. First edition. Small octavo; 198pp.; yellow cloth, in dust jacket. Mild soiling to board edges. Light foxing to textblock edges. Light foxing/off-setting to endpapers. Else very good in a very good minus jacket showing moderate soiling/browning, and fading to the publisher’s... More

First English-language appearance of this novel published (and "translated") pseudonymously in France in 1947; a satire set in Ireland during the 1916 Easter Rising. Translated from the French by Barbara Wright, with introduction by Valerie Caton. NY: New Directions, 1981. First (American) edition. Octavo (8... More

Attractive first edition copy of this selection of entries from the French writer's journals; a title reissued in 2008 by Tin House Books. Edited and translated by Louise Bogan and Elizabeth Roget. NY: George Braziller, 1964. First edition. Octavo, 9.5 x 6.5 in. 254pp., with... More

Elmwood Park, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 1991. First American edition. 330pp; 8vo; maroon cloth boards; gilt spine titles; dust jacket. Dense but quite lightly colored foxing to textblock edges and endpapers; a few spots of soiling to front board. Very good in a very good... More

First American edition of the 1910 novel by the sui generis French writer, who exerted a strong influence on both the surrealists and the later OULIPO movement. Translated by Lindy Foord and Rayner Heppenstall. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967. First American edition. Octavo, 8-1/4... More

First American edition of this 1967 novel, the final in a sequence of four including The Grass, The Flanders Road, and The Palace, by the recipient of the 1985 Nobel Prize in Literature. Translated from the French by Richard Howard. NY: George Braziller, 1968. Octavo,... More

Nice copy of this novel by the French writer and jazz aficionado, as translated by John Sturrock. NY: Grove Press, 1968. First edition. Octavo, 8-1/8 x 5-5/8 in. Gray cloth; silver spine titles; dust jacket. 191pp. Light sunning to edges of cloth. Else fine in... More