L’Europe buissonnière
Paris, Editions Jean Froissart, (June) 1949.
1 vol. (140 x 225 mm) of 389 p. and [1] f. In wrappers.
First edition.
Antoine Blondin’s first novel, L’Europe buissonnière follows Muguet and a gallery of characters as they travel across Europe during the Second World War, more concerned with their love affairs, encounters and pleasures than with the historical events unfolding around them.
Partly inspired by Blondin’s own experience — he was sent to Austria under the Service du travail obligatoire in 1943 — the novel runs counter to the gravity of postwar war literature: the defeat, the Occupation and the upheavals of Europe are treated with a provocative nonchalance and a taste for wandering that already announce the whole of Blondin’s later work.
Awarded the prix des Deux Magots in 1950.
A good copy, with its publisher’s wraparound band.
#32808
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