Midnight on the Place Pigalle

1932, first UK edition of Maurice Dekobra's Minuit... Place Pigalle

Author

Publisher

Printing Details

First UK edition. Hardback, bound in black cloth with green titling to spine and upper board. 19 × 12.5cm, 217pp + ads

First published in France in 1923 as Minuit... Place Pigalle, this was subversive author Maurice Dekobra's story of Mr Prosper, a hotel waiter who escapes busy city life for the country but soon misses the hustle and bustle of Parisian life. He moves back to Place Pigalle where he soon indulges in a life of debauchery. The novel is a portrait of the city's dark corners and a decent man's rapid descent into poverty.

With twelve woodcuts by Jean Oberle, a French artist who later became one of the main French speakers on Radio Londres, the Free French broadcasts of the BBC during the Second World War.

Condition

Fair condition only. The spine is faded and there is fraying to the rear joint. The frontispiece is neatly detached but all twelve woodcuts by Jean Oberle are present. Light spotting throughout but remaining in good readable condition.