PERRIN
FRANKFURT 2013
RIGHTS 2013 Rebecca BYERS rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Editions PLON - PERRIN 12, avenue d’Italie 75013 Paris tel : +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90 / fax : +33 (0)1 44 16 09 01 www.editions-perrin.fr
…………………………… Jean des Cars The Saga of the Favorites …………………………………………………….……….. ………………… Bartolomé Bennassar A History of Madrid …………………………………………………………………..… ………………..………. Benoît Pellistrandi A History of Spain, from the Napoleonic Wars to the Present ……………….. …………………. Jean-Claude Simoën In Search of Lost Civilisations, Archeologists and Adventurers ……………… …………..………. Pascal Dayez-Burgeon The Secrets of Belgium ………………….……………………………………….….… ……………………..…… Gérard Tobelem A History of Blood ………………………………………….……………………….…..
………..……………… Claude Mossé Observations on Athenian Democracy ……………………………………………. ..…… Sophie Cassagnes-Brouquet Chevaleresses, a Feminine Knighthood …………………………….………….….. The Troubadours, a Poetic History ………………………………….……………...………………….……… Michel Zink
Leipzig, the Battle of Nations, 16-19 October 1813 ……………………….……..…………….………… Bruno Colson ………………..…..….. Jean-Yves Le Naour 1915 ……………………………………………………………………………............. ……………..…..…..….. François Kersaudy Stalingrad, the Wehrmacht in Hell ……………………………………….…….….. ………………....…………..……. Ivan Cadeau The Korean War, 1950-1953 ………………………………………….……………... …………………………..…. Pierre Razoux The Iran-Iraq War, the First Gulf War 1980-1988 …………………………………
………..………………. Frédéric Bozo The Secret History of the Iraqi Crisis, France, the United States and ……… Iraq, 1991-2003
…………………………. Jean Sévillia A Passionate History of France…………………………….………………………… ……………………….. Alexandre Maral The King, the Court and Versailles, the Permanent Flash of Brilliance, ….….. 1682-1789
….. Jean Lopez & Lasha Otkhmezuri Zhukov, the Man who Conquered Hitler …………………………………….….….. ………………………………….. Robert Solé Anwar Al-Sadat …………………………………………………………………....……. ……...……………….. Philippe Dufay Bernanos ……………………………………………………………….……….……..…. ………..………… Frédéric Martinez John Fitzgerald Kennedy ……………………………………………….……….…….
Corpus Equi …………………………………………………....................................... …….……………………… Diane Ducret
The Great War Seen from the Sky ……………………………….……………………….………………. Michel Bernard …………………………………….. Diane Ducret Dictators’ Wives, the Album ………………………………………...…….…………..
…….……………. François Kersaudy The Secrets of the Third Reich …..……………………………….………………… ………………………………….. Lydie Salvayre Seven Women ………………………………………...…….…………………………… Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
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After the success of La Saga des reines, Jean des Cars offers a gallery of portraits of the muses of monarchs, the women who inspired them in more than one way. Close to power, and sometimes actually the force behind the power, though exercised discreetly, a courtly cortège of the women to whom great men owed much. What is a favorite? The word, no doubt of Italian origin, signifies a woman who “has the favors” of someone of high rank. Not content to be merely a mistress, she is a woman of means who enjoys political, economic, or artistic influence. She always gets results, whether calamitous or positive, and nothing is done or undone without her. She plays a role (which, in fact, she really has no right to) because of her hold, the magic she exerts upon the monarch, prince, king, emperor, whether he is married, widowed, or single.
7 NOVEMBER 2013
320 PAGES
The highly successful “Saga of..” series continues – La Saga des Romanov sold 42 000 copies and the 2012 title La Saga des reines has topped 16 000 sales. The author not only writes history masterfully, he also regularly accompanies groups throughout the world as an historical consultant. He speaks fluent English. The “other woman” has been a source of fascination throughout history.
Jean des Cars has selected sixteen such women, all of them famous figures of European history: Agnès Sorel, Charles VII’s “Beautiful Woman“ Diane de Poitiers, Henri II’s lover until his death Gabrielle d’Estrées, favorite of Henri IV, the “Vert Galant“ The Duchesse de La Vallière, Madame Montespan and Madame Maintenon, three women who marked the reign of Louis XIV Madame Pompadour and Madame Du Barry, favorites of Louis XV, “the beloved“ Zoé du Cayla, mistress of Louis XVIII Lola Montès, an adventuress who fascinated Ludwig II of Bavaria Anne-Elizabeth Howard and La Castiglione, mistresses of Napoleon III Katia Dogoruki, official mistress of Czar Alexander II Blanche Delacroix, Baronne de Vaughan, the “very beautiful” favorite of the “very old” King Leopold II Magda Lupescu, favorite of Carol II of Rumania Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, the most famous favorite of the 20th century Jean des Cars has made his name as the historian of Europe’s grand dynasties and their most famous members. Among his very popular works are Eugénie, la dernière impératrice (Perrin, 1997), Sissi ou la Fatalité (Perrin, 1998), La Saga des Romanov (Plon, 2008), La Saga des Habsbourg (Perrin, 2010), La Saga des Windsor (Perrin, 2011) and La Saga des reines (Perrin, 2012).
Louis II de Bavière (1976) in ARGENTINA (Emece), ITALY (Ugo Mursia), JAPAN (Chuo Koron Shin-Sha) and POLAND (Panstwowy) Eugénie, la dernière impératrice (2000) in SPAIN (Editorial Ariel) La Saga des Romanov (2008) in ROMANIA (Editura Corint) La Saga des Windsor (2011) in SPAIN (Santillana ediciones - Taurus) La Saga des reines (2012) in POLAND (Muza)
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
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The complete history (political, artistic, economic and urban) of the Spanish capital, from its birth in the Middle Ages to the present. For the past half century, Madrid has held a recurrently prominent presence in international news and captured the attention of very different publics. This was not always the case, and Madrid experienced several periods of humdrum mediocrity, which may explain why history buffs who are vaguely familiar with the Golden Age are just as unfamiliar with the city’s origins. Mayrit, the “mother of waters”, was founded by Muslims and only became Christian at the end of the 11th century. Oddly enough, it was Philip II, the reigning king in 1561, who chose this city over several more important ones as his capital, his successors confirming his choice. The people of Madrid had absolutely no say in his decision and consequently were not particularly loyal. In 1701 they approved the choice of a Bourbon of the French line (Philip V) to succeed Charles II, the last of the Habsburg rulers, who died without an heir. Some time later, in 1808, the city burst onto the stage of History when its citizens rose up against the French occupation, echoes of the event resounding in 1936, when they refused to support the coup d’État of the generals. 29 AUGUST 2013
400 PAGES
All of Bartolomé Bennassar’s previous titles have been commercial successes, in particular: La Guerre d’Espagne at over 30 000 copies sold. A multi-faceted approach to the subject from a noted expert.
After the dictatorship of Franco, Madrilenos enthusiastically supported their king, Juan Carlos, as he led Madrid, and Spain, into an era of modern, peaceful democracy. More than a history of its capital, this is a history of a country and of the evolution of Spanish society, told by a talented author whose knowledge of both is unsurpassed.
Bartolomé Bennassar is a specialist on the Mediterranean world of the 16th and 17th centuries. Perrin has published several of his works, considered references on Spain, including La Guerre d’Espagne et ses lendemains (2004), Histoire des Espagnols (Perrin “Tempus”, 2005) and Franco (Perrin, 1995, 2002).
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Les Chrétiens d’Allah (1989) in SPAIN (Editorial Nerea) and ITALY (RCS Libri) 1492, un monde nouveau? (1991) in SPAIN (Editorial Nerea) Franco (1995) in SPAIN (Editorial Nerea) and PORTUGAL (Edicoes Seculo XXI) La Guerre d’Espagne (2004) in ROMANIA (Editura Allfa), in ITALY (Giulio Einaudi) and SPAIN (Santillana Ediciones - Taurus)
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
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The contemporary history of Spain is one of institutionally unstable political life, the threat of recurrent civil war, the abdication or exile of sovereigns, the machinations of the army that weighed upon political equilibrium, the failure of the consolidation of a liberal republic, the long dictatorship of Franco, and the ultimate confirmation of a democratic State. Describing its history in fascinating but accessible detail, the author reveals in particular the permanence of political and cultural fractures that were already present in 1808; their long term influence upon Spanish society explains the recurrent elements of a turbulent history. The author rejects a selective approach that would confine the Spanish to a parochial marginality due to their character. Instead, he has chosen a deliberately comparative perspective, reintroducing Spain in a common history of the European people and demonstrating how the Spanish have lived, in their own time and in their singular fashion, a political, social, economic and cultural adventure which is profoundly European.
31 OCTOBER 2013
704 PAGES
A comprehensive history of modern Spain, from 1808 to the present. Written by one of the finest specialists on the subject and based on the most recent research in Spanish historiography. Places the history of modern Spain within the European context.
Benoît Pellistrandi studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure and holds an agrégation in history. He teaches Première Supérieure preparatory classes at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris and was a member and director of studies at the Casa de Velázquez (Madrid) from 1997 to 2005. He has worked extensively in Spanish academic circles and is involved in French historical research as well, as is evident in his direction of three works, La historiografía francesa del siglo XX y su acogida en España (Casa de Velázquez, 2001), L’Histoire religieuse en France et en Espagne (Casa de Velázquez, 2005) and, with J.-F. Sirinelli, L’Histoire culturelle en France et en Espagne (Casa de Velázquez, 2008).
Franco-Belgian author, Pascal Dayez-Burgeon takes an amusing approach as he plunges the reader into the secrets of Belgian history, from the Congo to the neverending quarrel between the Flemish and Walloons to the question of a national industry: comic strips. Do we really know Belgium that well or, for that matter, does Belgium itself? It’s by no means certain. Are we aware, for example, that Belgium was the inspiration for Marx’s Communist Manifesto, that Tintin au Congo is actually rather progressive, that the Belgian king has a key role, or that Brussels was never keen on becoming the capital of Europe? Do we really understand the reasons for Flemish nationalism, the Dutroux sex affair, Belgian jokes, or the political crisis that brought Elio Di Rupo to the premiership in December 2011? This is the purpose of Les Secrets de la Belgique, to decode the paradoxes and pretenses of a country we assume we know, one that often proves to be far from what we expected.
14 NOVEMBER 2013
Pascal Dayez-Burgeon studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure and holds an agrégation in history. A former diplomat, he is assistant director of the of the CNRS. Among his published works are Belgique-Nederland-Luxembourg (Belin, 2000) and, in Perrin’s “Tempus” edition, La Reine Astrid (2012).
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
224 PAGES
A lively and amusing text on the mysterious little country called Belgium. As a Franco-Belgian the author looks at his subject from within and without.
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As a guide and a fascinating story teller, Jean-Claude Simoën takes us down the paths of those intrepid archeologists and adventurers who, for the past two centuries, have revealed to the world the past existence of lost civilizations. A work rich in both history and adventure.
22 AUGUST 2013
300 PAGES
We begin by following the Frenchman Paul Pelliot who, on the road to China, discovered the origins of Buddhism and vestiges of Hellenism in grottos that had been walled up for centuries. Then on to Central America where, from the jungles of southern Mexico to northern El Salvador, researchers continue to study the wonders of Mayan civilization, its sublime temples and its pre-Colombian alphabet, which remains indecipherable and may be for all time. And then a tour of Crete and Qumrân for a taste of authentic archeology—this time Greek—and the science of sacred texts the religions of the Book are still squabbling over, and a trip to the far off mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where research conducted by the French school of the Musée Guimet has arrived at a startling conclusion: 6,500 years before the time of Alexander the Great, an agrarian civilization existed on the banks of the Indus. The journey concludes in Cambodia, where, in 2010, after a worldwide archeological study, the finest scientists doing research today discovered the long-guarded secret of Angkor: what was initially taken for a series of scattered temples—an assumption that lasted for decades—was in fact a vast city, one whose hydraulic network was amazingly sophisticated by modern standards, and which once counted up to 700,000 inhabitants! Jean-Claude Simoën, historian and editor, is the author of several works, including Le Voyage en France (Lattès, 1997), Le Voyage en Italie (Lattès, 1994), Le Voyage en Terre sainte (Lattès, 1993), Le Voyage en Égypte (Lattès, 1989) and L’Épopée de l’archéologie (Fayard, 2008. Perrin “Tempus“, 2012). The wonderful storyteller, Jean-Claude Simoën, takes us on an adventure with the intrepid archaeologists who have unveiled sites long forgotten to the world. –– Valeurs Actuelles Archaeology, what an adventure! If this discipline is now dominated by specialists, it inspired, in a bygone heroic age, madly passionate adventurers. It is this creative impulse that JeanClaude Simoën has us discover in this instructive and colorful book. –– Le Figaro
A worldwide look at the history of blood, one that is not only scientific, but symbolic and cultural as well, from prehistory to the present day. The vector of life, the sign of death, the story of blood is that of the history of mankind. Like the threads of red that run through the body, this book is a tale of continuity, one that, from the dawn of time, has intimately bonded blood to life. Sacrificial blood, the blood of wounds of the hunt or of war, the blood of women, sacred blood—ever since forever, blood has always intrigued and fascinated. Vital or cursed, it has inspired innumerable myths and been the symbol of mystic visions. Assimilated with poison, justifying blood-letting to a senseless degree, or with a remedy, sparking the great idea of the transfusion, from the time of the ancients and their Hippocratic oaths to the present, blood has been a subject of debate. Blood, a sort of interior sea that bathes all tissues, a nourishing liquid that also evacuates all waste, on the front lines of defense against any foreign body, is the mark of the individual and of his lineage. At the very heart of a crucial social issue since the 80s—the AIDS virus—today it constitutes an increasingly expensive resource that is coveted the world over. 3 OCTOBER 2013
A former student of Professor Jean Bernard, then professor of hematology at the Université de Paris VII and chief of the service of blood-related illness (APHP), then chargé de mission at the Ministère de l’enseignement supérieur et de la recherche (1993-1997), Gérard Tobelem was director of the Etablissement français du sang (EFS) (2009-2012), which collects, prepares, ensures the purity of and delivers 3 million blood products to hospitals every year. Today he is the director of Theradiag, a French company responsible for in vitro biological diagnosis. He is the author of several essays and documents as well as a novel, L’Ami algérien (Lattès, 2003). Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
320 PAGES
A subject that touches all of humanity – in body and in mind. The author brings to the work his scientific knowledge and experience but also his great ability to tell a story. FRANKFURT 2013
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“Participative democracy”, “citizens’ democracy”, “democratization of the Arab world”. Thoughtful consideration of this political system has rarely reached such intensity. Democracy is on the agenda, from the war in Iraq to demonstrations in Kiev. Politicians, academics, and journalists have made it one of their favorite themes for reflection. But neither the word nor the regime constitutes a recent discovery. Both are 2000 years old. It is time to return to the initial meaning of the term and to reflect upon its evolution throughout history. In this brief and stimulating essay, Claude Mossé presents those who are concerned about the future of democracy with interpretations, over the centuries, of this regime born in the 5th century B.C. on the shores of the Adriatic and offers, in relief, a history of democracy in Athens. Brilliant and exhilarating.
19 SEPTEMBER 2013
224 PAGES
The latest book of a member of the brilliant French school of Athens. A rich reflection on what classical Athens brought to the foundations of democracy. Current world events bring the subject to the fore.
Professor emeritus at the Université de Paris VIII, Claude Mossé specializes in the history of ancient Greece. She has written about twenty books, most dealing with classical Greece and the Hellenistic period, all translated into several languages, including her renowned works Histoire d’une démocratie, Athènes and Périclès, l’inventeur de la démocratie (Seuil, 1971). She received the medal of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in 2012.
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Claude Mossé is one of those professors who, without ever giving up her research activities, has always been adept at communicating the results to a wide public. Her capacity to reveal the state of knowledge without neglecting the state of current research and the complexity of problems is admirable. –– Le Monde For her, writing is neither a luxury nor a burden but a necessity, for, like the Greeks, Claude Mossé’s intent is to teach. Her work, which draws upon the meticulous study of texts, the speeches of members of civil society, and literary sources, among others, offers a rich analysis of the cité of Antiquity. Her approach (…) to a subject, dominated by studies that until now retained only the patriotic struggles and national elements of the Greek question, is brand new. –– Histoire
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
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! Full of examples, a brand new interpretation of the role and the place of women in political and military society of the Middle Ages. No indeed, they were not all weak and helpless. Apparently, women everywhere share a proclivity for pacifism marked by a horror of violence, and war, therefore, is an exclusively masculine activity. Quite a stereotype, but one that has hidden the presence of conscious and active women warriors in medieval times. This investigation opens with the presence of the first horsewomen in feudal times and their participation in the Crusades, ending with an image of Joan of Arc that is at once real and idealized. There were women, most of them aristocrats, who shared the warrior ideal prevalent at the time, organized tournaments, and were members of the military orders of knighthood. In literature, the chevaleresses were the “beautiful warriors“, the legendary nine “Preuses“. The legend of these feminine warriors echoes in the authentic exploits of some of these ladies who were every bit the equal of men in their excellence and their idealism. 10 OCTOBER 2013
264 PAGES
A brand-new contribution to medieval historiography. Widespread interest for the question of the role of women in the Middle Ages.
Sophie Cassagnes-Brouquet holds an agrégation and a doctorate in history as well as a doctorate in art and archeology. She is a former curator of antiques and objets d’art of Corrèze and teaches medieval history at the Université de Toulouse-Mirail. Among her noteworthy works are La Passion du livre au Moyen-Âge (Ouest-France, 2003), Les Romans de la Table Ronde, premières images de l’univers arthurien (Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2005), and La Vie des femmes au Moyen-Âge (Ouest-France, 2009).
The original history of the troubadours, by the finest of connoisseurs, Michel Zink. This is the very first work of its kind written with a broad public in mind, a “risk” the author has taken, “as a last chance to make it resonate for others as it resonates for me”. In the 12th century, they were terrific stars, their works generously remunerated. Like our modern rappers, they listened to what was going on in the world and wrote and sang—not in Latin, but in the languages commonly in use. In this instance, in the langue d’Oc. As early as the first decades of the 12th century, the presence of troubadours expanded throughout the region where the langue d’Oc prevailed, from Auvergne to Provence, from the Roussillon to the Atlantic, and even as far away as Catalonia and northern Italy. They were imitated in langue d’Oïl by the trouvères, in German by the Minnesänger, but by far the most creative and inventive were the troubadours of the South. The most famous was one of the great princes of his times, Guillaume IX, Comte de Poitier and Duc d’Aquitaine (1071-1126), the master of the love song (and, incidentally, of saucy songs). The art of the troubadours faded after the Albigensian crusade of the 13th century, its flame finally dying with the century. Michel Zink does his utmost here to make love poetry that is nine centuries old accessible to the reader. He has edited the poems and returns to the langue d’Oc to convey their flavor and sense of rhythm, telling one poet of another, their songs and the legends they inspired. Michel Zink is a professor at the Collège de France and the author of several works. He has devoted his life’s studies to the art of the troubadours and their poetry.
24 OCTOBER 2013
280 PAGES
Michel Zink is an internationally recognized specialist of the troubadours and their poetry. With this work, the author’s aim is to reach a broad public on the subject that has been the focus of his distinguished academic career.
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
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Leipzig, 1813, the Battle of Nations, or the greatest Napoleonic battle of all. The Battle of Leipzig, which took place from the 16th to the 19th of October, 1813, was the greatest of all Napoleonic battles in terms of its length, the number of men engaged (nearly half a million) and the extent of the area in which it was fought (about fifteen square kilometres). Never before had so many soldiers gathered to confront each other in the open countryside—a record they would hold until August 1914. Napoleon’s first battlefield defeat, this conflict signaled the loss of Germany for the Emperor and tolled the knell of his Great Empire. Little known in France, where no detailed study of the battle has ever been made, the Vôlkerschlacht (the Battle of Nations) nonetheless holds a primordial place in the German national consciousness in that it was the ultimate victory of the “wars of liberation”. The literature it has inspired, though now outdated, is indicative of its symbolic importance across the Rhine.
19 SEPTEMBER 2013
544 PAGES
The author is internationally recognized for his work in military history, especially Napoleonic. An “experience of war” approach to this famous battle with a portrayal of the daily life of soldiers based on primary source material. The book addresses a much-debated subject: were the Napoleonic wars the harbinger of the extreme military violence that began with the First World War.
This work is an important contribution to current studies of “the experience of war”. The daily existence of men, what they ate, what they felt, their wounds, how they dealt with suffering and death, the harsh reality of belly-to-the-ground combat are all a part of this narrative, the fruit of painstakingly minute exploration of French, Russian, Austrian and Prussian archives. The author has also consulted several memoirs of protagonists from all walks of life. His purpose is to reconstitute the facts as faithfully as possible, often by digging up and debunking dearly held myths regarding the Napoleonic legend, German nationalistic historiography, and, to a lesser degree, that of Austria and Russia. The narrative integrates a theme that has become a much-debated subject among historians, that of the slide towards total war. To what degree were the Napoleonic wars the harbinger of this excess of violence that would characterize warfare beginning in 1914? The Battle of Leipzig is the richest of subjects for study in this respect, for it represented the penultimate of intensity among the Napoleonic battles, yet it remained a structured confrontation in what was then the classic manner.
Francophone Belgian, professor at the Université de Namur, Bruno Colson specializes in military history and has written several books centered around the subject, including La Culture stratégique américaine : l’influence de Jomini (Economica, 1993), L’Art de la guerre de Machiavel à Clausewitz (Presses universitaires de Namur, 1999) and Napoléon, De la guerre (Perrin, 2011) – sold in Portuguese (Editora Record/Brazil), Russian (AST Publishing), Chinese (Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press) and English (Oxford University Press).
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
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With his 1914, Jean-Yves Le Naour fulfilled his ambition of writing a refreshing new take on the conflict, re-examining its origins and painting a vivid portrait of the day-to-day events of the first of those four years and how several levels of society experienced them. 1915 provides an equally breathtaking account of the facts, feelings, and the reality of an unprecedented conflict.
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With 1915, Jean-Yves Le Naour continues his extraordinary narrative of this first total war and all its facets, successively varying different perceptions of events—from the top down, from the standpoint of those involved in its political, social, military, diplomatic, and cultural effects. The soldiers’ perception is pitted against that of the High Command, the latter hiding its utter confusion behind doctrinal imperatives of a strategy of attrition, all the while casting about for experiments—increasingly costly in human lives—to try to pin down the means for a successful breakthrough. But the strategy of attrition was not only denounced by the soldiers compelled to carry it out, but also by a number of officers. Meanwhile, the secretive Joffre kept to his ivory tower, scarcely exposing himself to criticism and plotting how to eliminate those who would overshadow him.
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Critical and commercial success of Jean-Yves Le Naour’s 1914. Based on research in heretofore unexamined archives
The historian’s brand new interpretation of political life is fueled by extensive research into French secret services archives that have never before been examined, an invaluable source. Agents listened discreetly in the halls of the Palais Bourbon to discern the mood of the parliamentarians, which contrasted sharply with those presented in the press. In a perpetual state of turmoil, the parliamentary deputies tried to regain their power over General Headquarters in the face of a government that dared not challenge Joffre, in whom their confidence had been reduced to zero. The Sacred Union did not exist, or if it did it was only as a facade. Finally, in 1915, the war entered its most murderous phase, with the introduction of toxic gases and Turkey’s attacks on the Allies that would lead to the infamous defeat of Gallipoli. And still, the worst was yet to come. Jean-Yves Le Naour is a historian and has produced several documentaries. He has written a number of works on World War I, including 1914 (Perrin, 2012) and Les Soldats de la honte (Grand Prix d’Histoire, Ouest-France, 2011).
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Almost a hundred years after the events, here is a fascinating synthesis backed up with archival documents on the entry of Europe in the war –– Historia What do we expect from this new 1914…? We expect it, undoubtedly, to explain clearly the causes of the conflict, to recreate with sensibility the mood of the time, to expose, with precision, the shock of the first months of the war and the horror of the terrifying butchery they inaugurate. We can say without hesitation: these expectations have been masterfully met…We are impatient to read 1915!” –– Lire magazine Le Naour pores through all kinds of sources (diplomatic correspondence, contemporary newspapers and diaries, High Command notes, memoirs, etc) and draws a really lively portrait of the months leading up to the war and the initial phase…He really has the knack for making the protagonists come to life on the page and dispels a number of myths in the process. The military history is stunning, technically precise but accessible. –– American historian and translator, Jane Lizop
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
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& After the success of his Les Secrets du IIIe Reich and the “Maîtres de guerre” series, François Kersaudy opens the collection up to the world’s major battles. Stalingrad remains in many ways the monster of all battles, because of the length and the intensity of combat, the number of men engaged and the number of casualties, the strategic importance of the territory at stake, and the exceptionally symbolic importance of its outcome. This was the Homeric confrontation of two dictatorships between the Volga and the Don, and it represented a unique watershed in the evolution of the war in Europe.
10 OCTOBER 2013
176 PAGES
A prolific and highly successful author.
Seventy years after von Paulus’s surrender, it is still fascinating to follow the progression of events on three levels, that of the supreme commanders, that of the generals in the field, and that of the long-suffering infantrymen.The accounts of combatants, the photos taken in both camps, and the many maps permit the reader to understand the magnitude of this duel of Titans at the southern tip of Eastern Europe, at a time when the outcome of the war was still uncertain.
His latest title at Perrin Les Secrets du IIIe Reich has already sold 15 000 copies and is licensed in Poland to Muza. The success of the “Maîtres de Guerre” series here turning its focus to major battles. Illustrated with many unpublished color photographs.
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HITLER by François Kersaudy May 2011 – 265 pp. Lebanon (Jarrous Press) China (Beijing Hanbook) Czech Republic (Brana)
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François Kersaudy has taught at the universities of Oxford and Paris I. A specialist of the Second World War and a renowned historian, he has concentrated his work on events on the Eastern Front for the past several years. His excellent biographies published by Perrin include, among others, Hermann Goering (2009) and Hitler (2011). His latest work is Les Secrets du IIIe Reich (2013).
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PATTON by Yannis Kadari May 2011 – 240 pp. China (Beijing Hanbook)
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
STALINE by François Kersaudy May 2012 – 275 pp.
VON MANSTEIN by Pierre Servent May 2013 – 280 pp. China (Beijing Hanbook)
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Historian and officer, Ivan Cadeau, a specialist on Indochina and Korea, retraces the history of the Korean War (1950-1953), the first major conflict of the Cold War. The Korean War drew to an uneasy close sixty years ago. With two million dead, this was among the most murderous conflicts of the 20th century. The first war carried out in the name of the United Nations, it was also the first confrontation, direct or by proxy, between the United States and a China backed by the Soviet Union. Tension and discord had existed between the two Koreas since 1945, but they soon became of secondary importance when the North attacked the South on June 25th, 1950, and the national conflict became an international one.
26 SEPTEMBER 2013
396 PAGES
An approach that challenges the traditional Western perspective on the war by demonstrating how the genesis of the conflict was shared by both sides. The most recent up-to-date synthesis on a little-known war that is essential for understanding the current saber-rattling of North Korea.
The arrival of General Douglas MacArthur in command and the intervention of Chinese troops rapidly confirmed that the Korean War had become the first major confrontation of the Cold War. The combat that raged in Korea between 1950 and 1953 was also marked by the extreme fighting conditions the UN soldiers were forced to endure, which resulted in high casualties despite the superiority of their materiel. The spectre of nuclear war hung over the peninsula with the Soviet Union on the brink of producing a bomb, and the development of new arms, such as jet fighters, expanded. In the past, the history of the Korean War has been covered largely from the purely Western perspective, lending it a rather Manichean cast. The author challenges this traditional vision, explaining in particular the genesis of the war, the responsibility for which was considerably more a shared one than one would believe by reading only the “official” American history.
An officer who holds a doctorate in history, Ivan Cadeau is a member of the Service historique de la Défense. He is the author of a book about Diên Biên Phu (Tallandier, 2013) and is currently preparing Histoire de la guerre d’Indochine, to be published in 2014.
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
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) An essential work, based on the unpublished archival sources, by one of the finest Middle East specialists today. It clearly sets out what was at stake in the Middle East in the early 80s and relates that history to the current geopolitical situation. Whether considering Iran’s nuclear power plans or political crises in Iran and Iraq, it is impossible to understand the situation in the Gulf today without comprehending the complex mechanisms, the deep-rooted hatreds, the implacable power struggles, and the persistent frustrations that are the direct result of this ruthless war. The images of the Iran-Iraq War that drenched the Persian Gulf region in blood from 1980 to 1988 were so shocking that they remain in the minds of all: the sacrifice of child soldiers, trenches awash in blood, the corpses of the gassed, cities in ruin and oil wells aflame.
12 SEPTEMBER 2013
624 PAGES
Explains the situation that prevails in the Gulf today, whether the Iranian nuclear crisis or the behind-the-scenes power struggles in Tehran and Baghdad. Use of exceptional primary sources such as the “Saddam Hussein tapes” and interviews with major protagonists of the conflict. The author is a specialist in military strategy as well as the Middle East, often solicited by French and foreign media. His Tsahal – Nouvelle histoire de l’armée israélienne sold 9 000 copies.
This war, the longest in the 20th century, was the result of an unyielding confrontation between Saddam Hussein and the Ayatollah Khomeini. This multi-disciplinary work that treats both history and international relations recounts in detail the dreadful conflict. The author also presents an analysis of the attitude of the oil monarchies towards their neighbors and towards Russia, China, and the West. He had access to primary sources that have never before been exploited, including the famous “Saddam Hussein tapes”, and has also interviewed many of the protagonists directly involved in the conflict. And he examines, in detail, the numerous shadowy affairs--Irangate, attacks in France, and kidnappings in Lebanon—that are closely linked to this war, the most murderous the Middle East has ever seen. The Gulf War demonstrated the importance of the concept of security of energy supplies and compelled many nations of the West to establish a lasting presence in the Gulf region. In military terms, it was an experimental lab for the honing of innovative strategic tactics as well as a testing ground for the most modern weaponry. Pierre Razoux is a research director at the Institut de recherche stratégique de l’Ecole militaire (IRSEM). Well versed in international relations, an acknowledged Middle East specialist, he has written several works considered references on contemporary conflicts and on the Israeli-Arab situation, in particular Tsahal – Nouvelle histoire de l’armée israélienne (Perrin, 2006, 2008).
The particularity of this book is that it is based on the use of heretofore unexploited Iraqi sources, retrieved by American forces during the 2003 campaign. (...) This book is also remarkable for the length of time needed for research - ten years of work in the capitals concerned by the conflict - but also by the use, for the first time, of Iranian sources. (...) Understanding the divisions in the Middle East today necessitates a return to the battlefields that border Iran and Iraq. –– Le Monde
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The monumental work of Pierre Razoux, he is a true expert on the question. –– Passages Throughout this work, Pierre Razoux gives us the benefit of his deep knowledge of this unique military system. Full of details, restoring events in a lively style, the book offers a complete panorama of the Israeli armed forces. –– Lectures
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
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Based on exclusive archival sources, Frédéric Bozo retraces the history of the unprecedented crisis that culminated in the Iraqi conflict, when France and the United States confronted each other, thus providing a prism for understanding contemproary US foreign policy and international relations. Ten years ago, George Bush’s America, supported by Tony Blair’s Great Britain, invaded Iraq to put an end to the regime of Saddam Hussein, their bête noire since the Gulf War of 1991. It was a war conducted without a UN mandate, following a diplomatic crisis that peaked in the weeks leading up to it. Jacques Chirac’s France spectacularly opposed Bush and Blair, and Foreign minister Dominique de Villepin’s memorable speech before the United Nations remains one of the most eloquent it has ever witnessed. 12 SEPTEMBER 2013
384 PAGES
The story of one of the most serious international crises of our times: a prism for understanding American foreign policy and international relations in the 21st century. Based upon exclusive unpublished archives. Frédéric Bozo was also able to further his research in the framework of a fellowship with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. The author is a highly respected academic with expertise on trans-Atlantic relations Cold War history and French foreign policy – a number of his works have been published in the United States.
This book explores the history of a Franco-American crisis of an intensity unprecedented since the time of General de Gaulle. It shows how and why the Iraqi conflict led to the confrontation between two of the oldest allies of the West and to the divisions within Europe, the Atlantic Alliance, and the international community as a whole.
Frédéric Bozo attended the Ecole Normale Supérieure and holds an agrégation and a PhD in history as well as a degree from Sciences Po. He teaches contemporary history and international relations at the Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris III). An expert on the Cold War, trans-Atlantic relations and French foreign policy, most of his books have been translated into English: Two Strategies for Europe: De Gaulle, the United States, and the Atlantic Alliance, 1958-1969 (Vingtième Siècle. Revue d' histoire, 1996 / Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000), Mitterrand, the End of the Cold War, and German Unification (Odile Jacob, 2005 / Oxford - New York: Berghahn Books, 2009), and French Foreign Policy since 1945 (La Découverte, 1997 / Oxford - New York: Berghahn Books, forthcoming).
To measure the tension between Paris and Washington ten years ago, one must read this very good book by the historian Frédéric Bozo, professor at Paris III. –– Le Monde
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
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A fascinating and passionate narrative of the finest hours of French history, richly illustrated. This book by Jean Sévillia, whose earlier works have been met with acclaim and commercial success, answers the current need for an accessible history of France in one volume. This remarkable synthesis, accessible to a broad public, begins with France “before it was France”—prehistoric France—and continues to the present, choosing the most fascinating aspects of the country’s history: Clovis and Charlemagne – the heirs of Rome; the Capetian dynasty—the founding fathers of France; the Hundred Years War and the birth of a national identity; the Renaissance and the Reformation; the grandeur and failures of royal France; the Revolution; Napoleon: a destiny, a myth, and his works; the Restoration and the July Monarchy; the Second Republic and the Second Empire; the Third Republic, from 1871 to 1914; 1919 to 1945; the post-war period and, finally, modern France. 3 OCTOBER 2013
448 PAGES
A richly illustrated and engaging history of France in one volume. Jean Sévillia is a bestselling author whose Historiquement correct has sold over 100 000 copies. The book will benefit from a major promotional campaign in France with first serial excerpts in Le Figaro Magazine.
Jean Sévillia is Assistant Editor in Chief of Le Figaro Magazine and a member of the scientific council of Figaro Histoire. An essayist and historian, he is the author of many best-sellers, including Zita, impératrice courage (Perrin, 1997), Le Terrorisme intellectuel (Perrin, 2000), Historiquement correct (Perrin, 2003 – 105,000 copies sold), and Le Dernier Empereur, Charles d’Autriche (Perrin, 2009).
# Zita, impératrice courage (1997) in GERMANY (Artemis & Winkler Verlag) and HUNGARY (Gabo Konyvkiado) Le Terrorisme intellectuel (2000) in BRAZIL (Editora Peixoto Neto), ROMANIA (Humanitas) and HUNGARY (Kairosz Konyvkiado) Historiquement correct (2003) in SPAIN (Cuidadela Libros) and ROMANIA (Humanitas) Le Dernier Empereur, Charles d’Autriche (2009) in HUNGARY (Gabo Konyvkiado) and CZECH REPUBLIC (Plejada)
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
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) Presented by a renowned specialist, an exhaustive and brilliant exploration of a system of court and of government in its golden age (1682-1789), from its installation at Versailles until the fall of the Ancien Régime. In 1682, Versailles became the permanent residence of both the court and the government. There, at the heart of the vast and varied palace, figures of every social order from valet to monarch participated in a subtle form of geo-strategy, apparently immobile, but in fact in a constant state of movement. The way the court worked, the decision-making process, the allocation of services, precedence and disfavor—all existed solely by and for the sovereign, including the artistic creation for which Versailles enjoyed incomparable repute and influence. Louis XIV’s successors inherited the system and its functioning structure, maintaining it until 1787, when the new situation ultimately revealed its incapacity to adapt. 24 OCTOBER 2013
528 PAGES
Many titles have been published on Versailles, but rarely has the 100 year reign of this “suburban” monarchy been looked at as a whole. The author is a chief curator at the Château of Versailles where he has also supervised several major exhibitions.
Doctor ès-lettres, Alexandre Maral is the chief curator of the Château of Versailles, in charge of the sculpture collections. He was one of the supervisors of the “Louis XIV: l’homme et le roi” exhibition of 2008-2009 and of the subsequent “Versailles et l’Antique” exhibition of 2012-2013. He is the author of La Chapelle royale de Versailles sous Louis XIV (Mardaga, 2002) and Le Roi-Soleil et Dieu, Essai sur la religion de Louis XIV (Perrin, 2012). As his earlier work, this one is co-published in partnership with the public establishment of the Château of Versailles.
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
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Among several remarkable officers who led Stalin’s armies to victory during the Second World War, Marshal Zhukov stands out as the man who conquered Hitler. The collapse of communism led to a windfall for historians in the form of vast archives of the Soviet Union that had formerly been inaccessible. The authors have plunged into a wealth of material, beginning in the old peasant Russia of Czar Nicholas II. They have followed the path of a barely literate soldier buffeted by the great storms of history—the First World War and the Russian revolution of 1917. The young cavalry officer Zhukov proved his mettle during the civil war and miraculously escaped Stalin’s bloody purges that weakened the army and decimated its upper echelon officer corps. Then the Second World War broke out, and Zhukov found himself on every major battle front, from the counter-offensive of Moscow in December of 1941 to the victory at Stalingrad, from Kursk to the capture of Berlin. His important role continued after the war, when he was twice relegated to severe disgrace, saved Nikita Khrushchev, and attempted to effect in-depth reforms within the Soviet army. 5 SEPTEMBER 2013
672 PAGES
This work reveals the undoubtedly exceptional character of the man and of his actions, but it does not gloss over Zhukov’s immense failings, his violence, his shortcomings and his errors, nor the monstrous Stalinist machine of repression he did not hesitate to use to his advantage. Fascinated by the D-Day landings and the “liberators“, it is far too easy to forget that World War II was won on the Eastern front. Zhukov was one of its great artisans. The two authors have granted him his rightful place in the military history of the Second World War, at the very forefront.
The first complete biography of Zhukov, the man who conquered Hitler, examining his entire military career as well as his personal life.
Jean Lopez, founder and current editor of Guerres et Histoire, has carved out his place among historians as the author of several works on the Eastern front, including Koursk : les quarante jours qui ont ruiné la Wehrmacht (Economica, 2008 – 7,000 copies sold), and Grandeur et misère de l’armée rouge (Éditions du Seuil, 2011).
The authors form an unusually effective team bringing together the talents of a bestselling historian and a former Georgian diplomat with a valuable network in the ex-Soviet Union.
Lasha Otkhmezuri, former diplomat, is an editorial advisor at Guerres et Histoire. He speaks Russian, Georgian, English and French fluently. His contacts in the world of the former USSR have contributed immensely to an original perception of Zhukov and his actions which incorporates a Soviet point of view.
Based on research in recently accessible archives of the former USSR. It is indeed a pleasure to read this Zhukov, entirely steeped in the reality of war, by the journalist Jean Lopez and former diplomat Lasha Otkhmezuri (…) The memoirs of the principal protagonists of the war, full of falsehoods that Lopez ably unmasks, give life to Zhukov’s entourage (…) Through the layers of accounts and testimonies written between 1945 and 2013 and decrypted here one seizes the enormous but therapeutic weight of this history of the war in Russia. –– Valeurs Actuelles A masterly biography of Zhukov, the Soviet marshal who fought the armies of the 3rd Reich. –– Le Figaro littéraire
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
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% Who really was Anwar al-Sadat? A great statesman, courageous and visionary, who led Egypt to sign a peace treaty with Israel ? Or a short-sighted politician who led his country into a dead end and opened the door to the Islamists? The former President of Egypt still remains an extremely controversial figure. His life reads like a novel. Born into poverty in a little village on the Nile delta, he studied at the Royal Military Academy of Cairo. Once he had become an officer, he was active in plots and assassination attempts against the British occupiers. He escaped from prison, where he had spent a few years, and took up a clandestine existence. A member of the junta that overthrew King Farouk 1st and took power in 1952, he remained for some time in Nasser’s shadow before succeeding the charismatic leader in 1970. From then on, he never ceased to surprise nearly everyone, even receiving the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1978. His assassination, in the middle of a military review on October 6, 1981, brought to a spectacular end a life full of contradictions.
22 AUGUST 2013
368 PAGES
The “Sadat years” left their profound mark on Egyptian society, and an understanding of them—and of the man—is essential to a comprehension of today’s Egypt and the entire region. The author brings to the book his profound knowledge of the country and his engaging prose.
Born in Cairo and for a long time a journalist at Le Monde, author of several novels, Robert Solé has written innumerable essays on the country of his birth, including L’Égypte, passion française (Éditions du Seuil,1997), the Dictionnaire amoureux de l’Égypte (Plon, 2001), Le Pharaon renversé (Les Arènes,2011) and Champollion (Perrin, 2012).
Robert Solé has delivered a passionate but balanced biography of the Egyptian who made peace with Israel. A solid and brilliant biography (…) In each chapter of this saga, the author hones a politico-psychological portrait of Sadat the man, with supporting documents and testimonies. –– Le Monde des livres
A long-awaited biography of a literary giant and a complex human being. One of the Three Musketeers, gone astray in our era? A madman, according to his critics? Sixty-five years after his death, this is the first true biography of the author of Sous le soleil de Satan and Les Grands Cimetières sous la lune. Brawls in the Latin quarter, nights at La Santé prison, cavalry charges and life in the trenches of the Great War, motorcycle accidents, a journey to Paraguay in the footsteps of Jesuit missionaries and trail rides in a Brazil right out of a western—Georges Bernanos’s life reads like a novel. His is the story of a young royalist, militant of the extreme right-wing Action française, never hesitating to join in any confrontation with the representatives of the Republic; a visceral enemy of democracy who nonetheless denounced Franco, Mussolini, Pétain and Hitler; a notorious antisemite, admired, however, by Max Jacob, Stefan Zweig and Simone Weil; a Christian whose faith was downright medieval, but who obstinately rejected the label of “Catholic writer”. Most of all, it is the story of a major literary talent, one of a very few to have excelled not only as a novelist but also in the domain of political literature. 5 SEPTEMBER 2013
Special correspondent at the Quotidien de Paris, then the Figaro Magazine and Madame Figaro, Philippe Dufay is the author of two biographies: Jean Giraudoux (Prix Printemps de la biographie, Julliard, 1993) and Jean d’Ormesson (Bartillat, 1999).
272 PAGES
A biography of Bernanos, the man, based in part on interviews with people who knew him, including his daughter Dominique, the last of his six children living. Bernanos is a major figure of French and world literature.
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
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Nearly fifty years ago, on November 22nd, 1963, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. This is a biographical essay, by a writer of formidable talent. The lousiest Western America ever witnessed played on November 22, 1963. The hero, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, meets his destiny in the blinding sunlight of Dallas, cowboy country. Only he dies at the end. Television networks the world over broadcast the images of his assassination, transforming this young, handsome, wealthy president, blessed by the gods, from luminous myth into legend as the bullets—not blanks, as in the movies—mortally wound him. The press and the biographers crown him in ever superlative adjectives, expressing in every language eternal regrets.
26 SEPTEMBER 2013
224 PAGES
The author combines historical rigor and excellence of style, qualities that he has skillfully used to construct word pictures of men and of their times.
Since then, we have come to realize that the other side of the story is a roman noir where gangsters and bottle blonds abound, and that the fearless hero was not without his faults. Between a Superman in presidential garb, right out of Marvel comics, and the compulsive skirt-chaser with links to the Mafia, the truth is obviously much more complex. Who really was JFK, the man behind the Ray-Bans? This is the story of the president who dreamed of being a writer, this eternally young leader who will forever incarnate an America filled with hope.
Doctor ès lettres, Frédéric Martinez is an established biographer, known for his works on Toulet (Tallandier, 2008), Jimi Hendrix (Tallandier, 2010), Maupassant (Gallimard, 2012) or Liszt (Gallimard, 2011).
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A superb biography that permits a better understanding of Maupassant, someone much more complex than he seems. One reads this biography with a great deal of pleasure mixed with sadness, the writer' s life playing out like a novel... –– Le Figaro (about Maupassant) The tone is biting, the style is to the point, the irony pithy. –– Le Figaro magazine (about Aux singuliers. Les Excentriques des Lettres) Nothing escapes this incisive pen, the lively and remarkable writing of Frédéric Martinez allows a vivifying immersion into the life of Liszt... –– Classiquesnews.com (about Franz Liszt) “Biography”? The word is too simplistic. Prends garde à la douceur des choses is the novel of a dissipated life, a hymn to love and hard alcohol, a sensitive chanson de geste. One should retranscribe the extraordinary empathy with which Frédéric Martinez has seized (t)his life and shown it to be both tender and rough and ready. –– Frédéric Beigbeder in Paris Match (about Prends garde à la douceur des choses: Paul-Jean Toulet, une vie en morceaux)
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
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! The true story of an exceptional relationship between a young woman and her horse. A poignant narrative, delivered with superb mastery of style. Not Pegasus nor Bucephalus, her horse was called Zascandyl, and for this girl, he was her whole world. A love too exclusive to last? But it did, until he suffered a horrible death, and she a terrible accident. When you are told, at fourteen, that you will never walk again, is there a remedy? Yes, you can find yourself astride a galloping horse at thirty and feel his energy and his burning body heal the wounds of those years of despair. Such is the magic of the age-old complicity between man and his most noble conquest, the glory of Bellerophon and Alexander, El Cid and Hernando Cortes, reflected in the extraordinary destiny of a young horsewoman. This thrilling book, heightened by writing that inspires and enchants, blends the narrator’s story and the author’s actual experience. The horse, in this case, is also a metaphor for the return to childhood, the confrontation and surpassing of sorrow, the refusal to accept what destiny has decreed.
29 AUGUST 2013
168 PAGES
The unique relationship between man and his mount is a recurrent theme that dates from the beginning of time and has never failed to inspire interest and passion. Diane Ducret’s modern version, an exploration of the paths of liberty as well, is among the finest examples of such compellingly splendid literature. Diane Ducret who was 30 in 2012, became known with the immense success of her two volumes of Femmes de dictateur (Perrin). What is less known is the fact that she once showed the promise of a bright future in equestrian competition. This work, much more personal than the previous two, reveals again the extent and variety of her talent.
After the historical accounts on the wives of dictators, Diane Ducret publishes an original and personal narrative (…) that goes beyond the intense bond between a young horsewoman and her steed. Wound. Bereavement. Redemption. Like Alexander the Great linked for eternity to Bucephalus, it is in the name of her lamented Zascandyl that the author evokes the most beautiful of conquests: life itself. –– Le Figaro Diane Ducret has written a veritable ode to the horse. She speaks of Pegasus and Bucephalus, Bellerophon , Alexander and Zingaro. The music with which she expresses this refrain is both pleasant and moving. To the point of touching listeners who are indifferent to horses, merry-go-rounds and all things equestrian… –– Le Point
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
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On the occasion of the centennial commemoration of the First World War, this unusual and beautiful book combines a literary narrative of the war with over a hundred contemporary photographs, taken from the air and never before published, of the sites of the major battles of the conflict (Marne, Verdun, Somme, Chemin des Dames, and others). The centenary commemoration of the outbreak of the First World War honors the memory of those who fought in this dreadful conflict. This lively and touching narrative calls upon the voices of well known participants in the war (Genevoix, De Gaulle, Ravel and others). The photos taken by the Army are original to this work and show the scars of combat on the French countryside (trenches, forts, necropolises) as well as the sites of the major battles. This album focuses on a new, powerful, and original vision of the First World War and will surely appeal to a wide public beyond the frontiers of France. 7 NOVEMBER 2013
352 PAGES
A beautifully written narrative of the First World War. Original and evocative photographs showing the terrifying scars left by this frightening European conflict.
The photographs were taken by two Army photographers during numerous helicopter flights between 2012 and 2013.
Michel Bernard, historian and civil servant, is one of the finest specialists on the Great War as perceived by its writer-soldiers, particularly Maurice Genevoix. He is the author of the widely acclaimed La Tranchée de Calonne (La Table ronde, 2007), which was awarded the Prix Erckmann-Chatrian, La Maison du docteur Laheurte (La Table ronde, 2009, Prix Maurice Genevoix) and Le Corps de la France (La Table ronde, 2010, Prix Erwan Bergot de l’armée de terre).
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
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Diane Ducret is the author of a celebrated study of the relationships of dictators and their wives. Its success was such that she wrote a second volume, and here she has selected chapters concerning ten of these women, the most extraordinary and the most surprising. Each chapter is amply illustrated, providing a face and figure to both unknown individuals and famous ones, captured in often un-posed and candid roles and postures that are, to say the least, unexpected. The whole is surprising, compelling, sometimes amusing, and tragic as well. For this exceptional work, crowning one of the greatest historical successes in recent years, Diane Ducret has written an original presentation. 24 OCTOBER 2013
292 PAGES
The ten chapters chosen from the original two volumes: Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Fidel Castro, Ceausescu, Bokassa, Saddam Hussein, Khomeiny, Kim Jong-il Diane Ducret, who turned 30 in 2012, has proven to be a formidable historian and writer since 2010. Widely acclaimed in the press, Femmes de dictateur and Femmes de dictateur 2 (Perrin, 2011, 2012) topped the best seller lists in their genre with a total of 300.000 sales in France alone.
Femmes de dictateur (2011) in POLAND (Znak), BULGARIA (Riva), SPAIN (Aguilar), PORTUGAL (Casa das Letras), BRAZIL (Nova Fronteira), ITALY (Garzanti), GERMANY (Ecowin), RUSSIA (Hemiro), TURKEY (Yelda), NETHERLANDS (De Bezige Bij), CZECH REPUBLIC (Jota), Korea (Seedpaper), SLOVAKIA (Ikar), ROMANIA (Curtea Veche), JAPAN (Kashiwashobo), CROATIA (Skolska Knjiga), HUNGARY (Kossuth), THE ARAB WORLD (Jarrous Press), LITHUANIA (Baltu Lanku), SWEDEN (Lind), ISRAËL (Agam). Femmes de dictateur 2 (2012) in RUSSIA (Hemiro), POLAND (Znak), TURKEY (Destek), KOREA (Munhak Segye), CROATIA (Skolska Knjiga), JAPAN (Hara Shobo), LITHUANIA (Baltu Lanku), NETHERLANDS (De Bezige Bij), THAILAND (Srisara) .
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
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& Through the resolution of fifteen great enigmas, a descent into the heart of the secret history of the Third Reich and its prominent figures. Who wrote Mein Kampf? What actually happened in Hitler’s bunker in April, 1945? Was Himmler really an adept of the occult? What was really going on, behind closed doors, in the Rudolf Hess affair? What do we know of the Führer’s relations and relationships with women? Who was behind the Reichstag fire? These are a few of the questions this book attempts to answer. If a great deal of ink has already flowed concerning some of these mysteries, shadows, questions, even taboos nonetheless persist in the case of each, ones which merit a fresh investigative look. By revealing and discussing the major secrets of the Third Reich and its dignitaries, François Kersaudy, with his rigorous sense of detail and inimitable talent for story telling, casts new light on the confidential aspects of the Nazi regime.
21 MARCH 2013
324 PAGES
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A prolific and highly successful author. Les Secrets du IIIe Reich has already sold 15 000 copies and is licensed in Poland to Muza.
François Kersaudy has taught at the universities of Oxford and Paris I. A specialist of the Second World War and a renowned historian, he has concentrated his work on events on Nazi Germany and on the Eastern Front for the past several years. His excellent biographies published by Perrin include, among others, Hermann Goering (2009) and Hitler (2011). His latest work is Les Secrets du IIIe Reich (2013).
First serial rights published in Le Point.
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
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% Seven fascinating portraits of women who have left their indelible mark upon the literary history of the past two centuries, with emphasis on their inner lives by one of France’s exceptional writers. Seven women. Seven emblematic figures of the literature to which they completely devoted their lives. Each was compelled by a passionate impulse to write, a fascination with the written word that drove some to suicide. Unusual, demanding, they drowned their personal pain in their works. Their daily lives seemed to each drab and insignificant—pushed to the extreme, as in the case of Sylvie Plath, tragic. But isn’t this very “dailyness” what now marks their writing in the context of history? The history of pre-war Paris, or that of the Roaring Twenties, or the history of Stalinist Russia? How can one reinterpret a work through the very life of its author?
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Lydie Salvayre sets herself to the portraitist’s task, much as Cioran and Sainte-Beuve so magnificently did, by choosing writers whose works influenced her own life and inspired her own works: Emily Brönte (1818-1848), Colette (1873-1954), Virginia Woolf (18821941), Djuna Barnes (1892-1982), Marina Tsvetaeva (1892-1941), Ingeborg Bachmann (1926-1973) and Sylvia Plath (1932-1963). Disturbingly unconventional, sometimes scandalous, in their own way each tells of a world that caused her suffering, yet one she helped to shape. Now their works are literary monuments. Lydie Salvayre brings each of these women to life, writing of their lives, their beauty, their outrageousness and their rebellion, as well as their dark side, their despair.
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Lydie Salvayre is the author of about fifteen novels, including La Compagnie des spectres (Seuil, 1997) which was awarded the Prix Novembre and was elected ”Best Book of the Year” by literary review Lire in 1997. Her novel BW (Seuil, 2009) won the Prix François Billetdoux. Her works have been translated into twenty languages and adapted for theatre or enacted as concert-readings.
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10 000 copies already sold and the title is long-listed for the Prix Renaudot 2013! Paperback rights sold in auction. Excellent articles in the French and Swiss press (Le Monde, Elle, Le Temps, La Vie, Marie-Claire….) One of the most respected writers of contemporary French literature The critical success of Lydie Salvayre's previous books. Lydie Salvayre's work has been translated into 17 languages.
It is to prolong the pleasure she takes in the constant re-reading of their works that Lydie Salvayre slowly became interested in their lives, and having delved into their individual biographies, she discovers that for each of them, writing and living is one and the same thing. –– Le Monde This essay, devoted to women who are inconsolable and awkward in the business of life, is gorged with vitality. There is something essential in these pages. Going back and forth between their biographies and their work, she [Lydie Salvayre] produces not tombs but odes. Moving. –– Elle The novelist paints the portrait of seven women of letters, with tragic destinies and illtreatment from men…acid and delectable. –– Lire They number seven, like Bluebeard’s wives, but they are bolder, cleverer and crazier. Lydie Salvayre devotes to each a passionate mini-biography, with keys to these often tragic but luminous lives. –– Marie-Claire A book to nibble at. A book to devour. A book to keep. A book to underline. Lydie Salvayre is never as good as when she writes short texts and her elegance of style and turn of phrase do wonders. –– Le Bien public
Foreign rights Contact: Ms. Rebecca Byers: rebecca.byers@plon-perrin.com Perrin, 12, avenue d’Italie – 75013 Paris, France. Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 16 08 90
FRANKFURT 2013
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