Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
Turn the pages with the arrows, keyboard, or a swipe.
Peter Owen, Published 1995. Hardcover, 143 pp.; 23 cm; First Edition of this translation; illustrated with black-and-white drawings by E. Riou from the original 1888 French edition; 3 maps. Translated from the French and with an introduction by Marlo Johnston.
In Very Good condition with a Very Good dust jacket. Light blue cloth boards lettered in silver on spine; mild shelf and edge wear. Binding tight. Pages clean and unmarked. White pictorial dust jacket with blue-toned photograph of open sea in a circular frame on front panel, title in red, and Riou drawing of a sailing yacht on rear panel; GBP 16.75 price on front flap. Mild shelf and edge wear, light bumping and creasing at top and bottom edges of rear panel, and a short crease at foot of rear flap. Jacket design by Thomi Wroblewski. Now in an archival quality (removable) Brodart cover. [From front flap] There are few great books about sailing on pleasure boats, but this is one. Afloat is the story of Maupassant's voyage around the Mediterranean coast aboard his yacht, the Bel-Ami. It is not only the record of a voyage, but a portrait of life at sea and of French provincial life on the land. It is also a confession: Maupassant reflects on the literary life, society, women, and politics, and his intimate thoughts are accompanied by the rhythms of the sea and the wind. This edition includes previously unpublished translations of three articles by Maupassant. Sur l'eau was first published in 1888 by Marpon et Flammarion; the first English translation, by Laura Ensor, appeared from Routledge in 1889. Johnston later wrote the 1,336-page biography Guy de Maupassant (Fayard, 2012). Contents: Introduction; Acknowledgements; Maps (The Cote d'Azur as Maupassant knew it; Cannes to Antibes; Saint-Raphael to Saint-Tropez); Afloat; Appendices (War; In the Presence of Death; The Carthusian Monastery of La Verne); Chronology; Select Bibliography.