Gabriel Chevallier / Dubout - Clochemerle - 1945

Superb numbered edition 381 on Arches vellum paper and illustrated by Dubout of this satirical novel that portrays life in an imaginary Beaujolais village, the scene of a burlesque dispute and a revealing look at the political, religious and social passions of provincial France in the interwar years -

The plot springs from a seemingly innocuous project by the mayor, Barthélemy Piéchut, who decides to install a public urinal near the church in order to improve the village’s hygiene, but this initiative triggers a disproportionate quarrel between the supporters of the municipal republic and the conservative camp led by the priest and the Catholic notables -

The novel then unfolds a succession of comic scenes, petty plots, incendiary speeches and comical incidents, where each character embodies a social and ideological type, from local elected officials to gossipmongers and ardent militants -

Chevallier observes with irony the rivalries of belfries, the pride of the aldermen, moral hypocrisy and the excesses of religious or anti-clerical zeal, turning a simple matter of a public latrine into a symbol of French ideological fractures -

Gabriel Chevallier / Dubout - Clochemerle - 1945 - Ernest Flammarion -
403 Pages.

Very good condition of the binding, paperback in its original illustrated ornate cover, with light signs of wear, speckled edges, title and author on the front and spine, the village coat of arms of Clochemerle in color on the front cover -

Very good interior condition, the work enriched with beautiful color illustrations both in and out of text including a frontispiece and on a two-page spread after Dubout’s drawings, a fine numbered copy 381 on Arches vellum, fresh inside -

Delivery service guaranteed within a few days -