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White, Edmund : The Flaneur: A Stroll Through The Paradoxes Of Paris

Bloomsbury Publishing, New York City, NY, 2001

ISBN 1582341354

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 215 pages. Book-length account on subject. One of Edmund White's finest achievements. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only that sold out shortly after publication. A surprise bestseller, the book remains available in multiple subsequent printings. The First Edition is now rare. Presents Edmund White's "The Flaneur: A Stroll Through The Paradoxes of Paris". The inveterate walker's guide to the city designed for walkers. This is the author's second book on Paris, preceded by "Our Paris: Sketches From Memory" (1995) and followed by "Inside A Pearl: My Years In Paris" (2014). It is worthy of comparison with its predecessors in Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin. "A flaneur is a stroller, a loiterer, someone who ambles through city streets in search of adventure and fulfillment. Edmund White, who lived in Paris for sixteen years, wanders through the streets and avenues and along the quays, into parts of Paris virtually unknown to visitors and indeed to many Parisians. In the hands of the learned White, a walk through Paris is both a tour of its lush, sometimes prurient history, and an evocation of the city's spirit. Leads us to bookshops and boutiques, monuments and palaces, giving us a glimpse into the inner human drama. Along the way we learn everything from the latest debates among French lawmakers to the juicy details of Colette's life" (Publisher's blurb). "One has the impression of having fallen into the hands of a highly distractible, somewhat eccentric poet and professor who is determined to show you a Paris you wouldn't otherwise see. Tells such a good story that I'm ready to listen to anything he wants to talk about" (The New York Times). Among American writers, only Edmund White could have written this book. By his own admission, he has spent a serious and dedicated portion of his otherwise sedentary life as a writer cruising. Cruising requires strong feet, insatiable sexual desire, and infinite curiosity, all of which White had, and refined over an adult lifetime of cruising. Its natural extension, a stroll through Paris, however paradoxical, is pure leisure, a walk in the park. An absolute "must-have" title for Edmund White collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Edmund White. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a contemporary classic. As far as we know, this is the only such signed copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies available online are subsequent printings even if their dealers don't say so. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1994 for "Genet". Anointed by Vladimir Nabokov as his American successor. One of the finest American writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER EDMUND WHITE TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 1582341354.

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