Week-end à Zuydcoote
Paris, revue « Les Temps Modernes », (October and November) 1948.
2 vols. (145 x 230 mm) of 768 and 960 pp. In wrappers, uncut, in a slipcase.
Advance excerpts of the forthcoming novel, published in nos. 37 and 38 of the review Les Temps modernes: they constitute the pre-original printing of the text.
Before its publication by Gallimard in June 1949, Week-end à Zuydcoote appeared in advance excerpts in the review edited by Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.
These excerpts offered the first public access to the text. A few months later, the novel — drawn from Robert Merle’s own experience as a liaison officer with British forces during the Dunkirk debacle — was awarded the Prix Goncourt. Merle witnessed firsthand the collapse of the French army and the British troops, trapped and encircled near Dunkirk. The only way out was by sea, and the evacuation to Britain was organized as Operation Dynamo.
From the “Prix Goncourt” library of Gérard Pouguet, who had a single wrapper of the novel bound into the first volume.
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