LES BELLES LETTRES

and imprints

Frankfurt Book Fair

2015

An overview of our books abroad

Stella Maris SPANE

Veche RUSSIA ETS ITALY Seishin Shobo JAPAN

Fondo de cultura economica MEXICO

Contents

2 Philippe Muray / Focus 4 Journal Maurice Garçon (1939-1945) 6 The Last Days, the End of the Western Roman Empire 7 Greeks and the Underworld, from Homer to Epicurus 9 Significance of Hair, Essay on Capillology in Ancient Times 11 Averroes, a Disturbing Author 12 Measuring Time in Antiquity 13 Governing with the World: Ancient Thoughts on Globalisation 14 Descartes Did not Say It : A Compendium of False Ideas about the Author of Discourse 15 Saussure Combined with the Future 16 A Critique of Creative Destruction: Production and Humanism 17 Philosophising with Young People 18 Reflecting on Architecture 19 Lyotard and the Arts 20 The Choice to Exist: Convert to a Better Life

Catalog translated by Carol Macomber

1

Philippe Muray (1945-2006) is an essayist and French novelist known for his great talent as a polemicist. The entire work of Philippe Muray is being published by Les Belles Lettres, his editor since 1991. Essays, of seven of its flagship publications were published in 2010. Posterity (novel, Grasset 1988), and The Glory of Rubens (essay, Grasset 1991) joined our catalog.

We advise any neophyte to take in small doses to begin, as the effect is explosive, without mercy. But also healthy - Philosophie Magazine Read, spread the work of Philippe Muray - Figaro Littéraire Free everyone to enjoy variously this thought which cuts to the heart; it will be difficult to deny that it has, in its way, unmasked our time - Figaro Magazine Dazzling ! - Marianne Muray was a moralist for whom critical thinking had to be an art - Lire He hit hard and fair, with the flint pamphleteer - La Croix Philippe Muray has never professed to flatter his contemporaries - Figaro Littéraire Flamboyance of a corrosive verb - Philosophie Magazine

Need to keep my diary, say more bluntly as possible what I believe to be true and which can in no way be publicly confessed

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Maurice Garçon Journal (1939-1945) 4th print A crucial testimony […] the publishing event of the end of season Le Monde The disaster, daily, seen by a nice guy […] The result is extraordinary (amazing) - Le Canard Enchaîné The eye and consciousness of an exceptional man Libération Exceptional document, exciting from beginning to end Charlie Hebdo

This previously unpublished journal of a renowned lawyer, witness and columnist of his era depicts the daily history of the German occupation in Paris, in the provinces, and in the corridors of power.

Maurice Garçon (1889-1967) was one of the greatest lawyers of his time. From 1912 until his death, he chronicled almost nightly every trivial or significant event he either witnessed or participated in. This first volume of his previously unpublished journal covers the war, the defeat, the occupation and the liberation. At the age of 50, the lawyer had reached the peak of his art. His notes also reflect his keen observational skills and an enviable writing talent. Nothing eluded his curiosity: he would criss-cross Paris and the provinces, ferreting out facts, double-checking them and writing them down, constantly applying – to his credit – the rare self-discipline of not rewriting anything: what people are reading is his rough draft, reported on-the-spot. Originally a staunch “Marshalist,” Garçon switched sides after the armistice and, once Pétain was voted in, never stopped criticizing “the old man,” expressing his patriotic fury, merciless dismay, anger, hope, despair, shame over the collaboration, and virulently attacking the new Vichy laws. His journal brims over with countless portraits, anecdotes, and little-known details. He shares with readers his encounters at the Palais de Justice with distinguished lawyers of the time, who were often making political headlines. Maurice Garçon knew everyone and took part in all major trials, from criminal cases to political scandals. Even before the war, his scholarly court pleadings had earned him the reputation of a literary – even mundane – lawyer and future academician. A whole gallery of prominent people pass through his pages: writers, painters, actors and publishers. This book invites us on an astounding journey through those dark years via an instantaneous and gripping history. This edition is presented and annotated by Pascale Froment & Pascal Fouché

> Contemporary History 704 pages May 2015 Option for Polish language 5

The Last Days The End of the Western Roman Empire Michel De Jaeghere

Du Guesclin Prize, 2014 He managed to give us a remarkable book, thanks to his clear writing and analytical mind. Le Figaro littéraire Michel de Jaeghere has published a major work on the lessons to be learned from the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Valeurs actuelles Perhaps the most significant and interesting event in all universal history – the end of the Western Roman Empire – is related in a ground-breaking and imposing book by Michel De Jaeghere. – Jean d’Ormesson. Le Figaro

How a civilisation dies: An account of the events

In this book, Michel De Jaeghere relates the events which led up to the fall of the Western Roman Empire by situating them in the long history of Rome. In an account full of fury and twists and turns, from which emerge such celebrated figures as Theodosius, Stilicho, Alaric, Galla Placidia, Attila and Aetius, the author draws a portrait of Late Antiquity’s society and institutions, as well as of the barbarian peoples who pressed up against the doors of the Empire. While painting a long-term view of the process through which the Germanic populations gained ground within the Roman world, the author does not overlook the military aspect of the invasions, nor the political, economic and social circumstances that rendered the Roman authorities powerless. Most importantly, this entire account is presented in the context of a dual exploration of the greatness and limitations of the Greco-Roman civilisation and of the causes of the death of empires.

Michel De Jaeghere is Managing Editor of Le Figaro-Histoire magazine.

> Ancient History 658 pages 0ctober 2014 6

Rights sold in Italy

Greeks and the Underworld : From Homer to Epicurus

Danielle Jouanna Browsing the stories and legends with a generous scholarship, this book shows how the mythologies that are anything but stable corpus stories. Le Monde des Livres In extreme clarity, this trial is going from Homer to Epicure toured the Underworld. Le Figaro Histoire Let us give thanks to Danielle Jouanna have cleared brush this dark path. La Quinzaine littéraire

The “invention” of the underworld and of the journey of souls in Greek society, religion and philosophy, from Homer to Epicurus

The author examines how the Greek concept of the underworld evolved from Homer (8th century BC) to the Epicurean philosophers (3rd century BC). Throughout their history, Greeks were divided between two contrasting concepts of the underworld. First, a Homeric legacy, perceived the underworld as a uniformly gloomy and dismal place, while the second, based on mystery religions and particularly on Plato, conceived of it as a highly complex place offering more pleasing prospects, mixed in with dreadful torments. Each change in the perception of the underworld underscored a new image of the universe until some challenged its very existence in the early 3rd century. This book offers the general public a clear and entertaining read, and scholars an in-depth and occasionally novel subject study. Danielle Jouanna has devoted her entire life to Ancient Greek. She has published such notable works as Aspasie de Milet, égérie de Périclès (Paris, Fayard, 2005 – which won the French Academy’s 2006 Diane Potier-Boès Prize) and L’Europe est née en Grèce (Paris, L’Harmattan, 2009).

> Ancient History 336 pages February 2015

7

Significance of Hair, Essay on Capillology in Ancient Times 2nd print Pierre Brulé An unusual, baroque and instructive investigation of the hair in Antiquity and also astonishing erudition - Le Monde des Livres A sum on the anthropological and political implications of body hair in Antiquity - Le Point

Of what possible benefit to us is a study on Greek body hair twenty-five centuries ago? The aim of this book is not to systematically investigate an aspect of human pilosity, but rather to hold it accountable for the role that it played in this culture. What meaning did they make it convey? What did it reveal? What did they want it to symbolise?

The core focus of this book is to highlight the ways in which pilosity has impacted various aspects of Greek thought and daily life, not only in terms of their clothing and other elements of external appearance, but also of their attitudes, hygiene and gestures, constituting what the Greeks called skhema (a notion which we may today translate as “look”). It affects, and is affected by, several fields: physiology, medicine, physiognomy, philosophy, politics, sociology, ethnology, religion, aesthetics and eroticism. The outcome is a book revealing a true history of pilosity and, in broader terms, deepening general knowledge of this human companion which ancient history tackled most belatedly: the human body. Pierre Brulé, Professor Emeritus at Université de Rennes 2, is the author of Périclès : L’apogée d’Athènes (Gallimard, «Découvertes Gallimard» collection, 1991, reprinted in 1994), and Les femmes grecques à l’époque classique (Hachette, 2006).

> Ancient History

576 pages May 2015 9

Averroes, a Disturbing Author 2nd print

Jean-Baptiste Brenet

Small essay very well written and perfect scholarship Le Monde The thesis is brilliant, the demonstration is striking Etudes

Averroes was a complex and ever-scandalous author never intimidated by the onslaught of critics. For centuries, all of his readers found him to be a strangely disturbing author. In this short and enlightening essay, Jean-Baptiste Brenet reveals the reasons for this reputation

Averroes (1126, Cordoba – 1198, Marrakech), whose full name was Abū l-Walīd Muhammad ibn Ahmad Ibn Rušd, was an individual of larger-than-life dimensions: medical expert, jurist, Qadi, philosopher and commentator on Aristotle’s works. He furthered the tradition of Greek philosophy in the Islamic world and later, by translating, distributing and using the latter’s works, became one of the key sources of Jewish and Latin medieval cultures. Yet this master affronted scholarly circles as well. For centuries in Europe, Averroes was regarded as the incoherent founder of a degrading and anti-religious theory on humankind. This aspect is discussed in the beginning of the book. Jean-Baptiste Brenet, who holds an agrégation in Philosophy, is an expert on Arab and Latin medieval philosophies, which he teaches at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. He has published Transferts du sujet. La noétique d’Averroès selon Jean de Jandun (Vrin, 2003) and Les possibilités de jonction. Averroès-Thomas Wylton, as well as Thomas Wylton, L’âme intellective, introduction, translation and notes (de Gruyter, 2013).

> Philosophy

160 pages May 2015 Option for Spanish language 11

Measuring Time in Antiquity

Jérôme Bonnin

The extraordinary work of Jerome Bonnin shows with great detail and specific examples, that this problem was solved much better than we think. - Roger-Pol Droit - Le Monde des Livres Summary data on an unknown subject, this book is a human adventure - Archéologia

This work examines how the introduction of technologies developed to measure time in antiquity ushered in new social, mental, and urban habits which continue to permeate our lives today

Antiquity is rarely considered to be a period typified by massive use of time-measuring instruments. This comprehensive work, which summarizes for the first time all available data on the topic, also challenges many generally accepted ideas. Time-measuring instruments were an integral part of habits in antiquity: the hours of the day governed numerous aspects of people’s private, as well as public, daily lives. Epigraphy and archaeology both attest to this particular need. Every city was expected to possess several public instruments –whether rudimentary or complex and monumental. Every property owner claiming even the slightest wealth had to have a sundial in his garden. What we owe antiquity in matters related to measuring time may exceed the scope of the usual standard technological questions. Jérôme Bonnin holds a PhD in Roman Archaeology from Université de Lille 3. He is pursuing his research on the topic of time measurement and its social implications in antiquity and has published numerous articles on the subject.

> Ancient History

448 pages March 2015 12

Governing with the World Ancient Thoughts on Globalization

Jean-François Pradeau A scholarly but accessible journey through the political thought of those who invented the term « citizen of the world » - Le Point Philosophical folder full of surprises - Le Soir

Ancient philosophers have written about the relationship between the city and the world: it is they who deserve credit for the first “cosmopolitan” theories. The aim of this essay by Jean-François Pradeau is to present these theories by rendering them accessible to readers who are unacquainted with them

This essay deals with what some authors such as Diogenes the Cynic, Plato, the Stoics and even Church Father Saint Augustine managed to say about global citizenship and the dream of a unique world city that would at long last unite all peoples. The issues raised by this ancient history of cosmopolitanism, which for a few decades promoted a form of cosmopolitan emancipation and invented a supranational Europe that today seems locked into its borders, are for the most part those of our own era. We can learn much about globalization from the Ancient Greeks, who coined the term “world citizen.” They humbly remind us that human life – which is a political life; i.e., one only possible within the instituted limits of a civic community – cannot procure peace or happiness without understanding its true and rightful place in the world. It is harmful, and ultimately impossible, to live without entertaining a certain idea of this world and of its order without first having a conception – even an approximate one – of what the universe is and the role that befalls on us to play in it. A Professor of Ancient Philosophy at Université de Lyon III - Jean Moulin, Jean-François Pradeau is first and foremost an expert in the works of Plato and of the Platonic tradition, about which he has published a great many works.

> Society / Social Science

144 pages April 2015 13

Descartes Did not Say it A Compendium of False Ideas about the Author of Discourse Denis Kambouchner

Honor in this book a Descartes made to himself - Lire Stimulating and helpful - Le Point Références The tone is playful, the style is cheerful, some chapters are presented as dialogues and there is no lack of liveliness - Le Monde des Livres

A contrapuntal introduction to Descartes’ thought in 21 clear and incisive chapters

No French philosopher is better known than Descartes. Yet, none is less well-understood: on many levels (innate ideas, relations between body and soul, reduction of animals to machines, human mastery of nature, etc.), people believe they know very well what he said, thus they do not bother to read his work. This book strives to underscore the distance between what people commonly claim that Descartes said and what he has actually written. In twenty-one short chapters which correspond to each part of Descartes’ work (from method to morality, by way of metaphysics and physics), the author paints a picture of the most commonplace errors and introduces the texts which enable them to be corrected. The whole book is written in a clear and lively style, with some parts presented in dialogue. This candid and spirited introduction to Descartes’ work also conveys some new insight into complex questions leading to some of the crucial problems challenging modern thought. Descartes’ so often maligned ideas thus are revealed as all the more refined, stimulating and fascinating when studied more closely. Denis Kambouchner is a History of Modern Philosophy professor at Université Paris 1. He is the author of several works on Descartes. He is currently directing the new edition of his work Œuvres Complètes, soon to be published by Éditions Gallimard.

> Philosophy

240 pages January 2015 14

Saussure Combined with the Future

François Rastier

From our imprint ENCRE MARINE

Unclassifiable, illustrious and unknown, Ferdinand Saussure remains to be discovered, a century after its death

This little book is pursuing a modest goal: to make people want to read or re-read the original writings of Saussure, to measure the singularity of thought. The discovery in 1996 of unpublished manuscripts has fostered an international think tank which allows current to reassess the status and prospects of language, particularly in its relations with semiotics and cultural studies. Saussure’s researches throw a new light on the relationship between language and thought, signs and cultural objects. Thus they are of general application, interested the scientific design itself. After the crisis of identity of the science of culture, they help design a re-founding project. This book intends to take stock of this new situation to engage the next reflection. François Rastier is a French semantician, doctor in linguistics and CNRS researcher. Among his many published works include Ulysse à Auschwitz — Primo Levi, le survivant, (Éditions du Cerf, 2005 [Prix de la fondation Auschwitz]), Apprendre pour transmettre. L’éducation contre l’idéologie managériale (PUF, 2013).

> Philosophy

144 pages September 2015 15

A Critique of Creative Destruction Production and Humanism

Pierre Caye

A rigorous and ambitious book - Libération Venture into this book abounding, profoundly original and innovative Le Monde des Livres

Creative destruction stems from a death wish. That is why this ambitious book proposes a long-overdue critique of the subject based on aestheticism, law and philosophy

This work addresses the relevant issue of the increasingly urgent need – given current ecological constraints – for a productive system revolution, despite our lack of the necessary tools to engineer this type of change. Twentieth-century wars created the illusion that destruction could give rise to creation. Today, human beings are at war with everything: their biosphere, their fellow creatures, and themselves. We are seeing more and more destruction and less and less creation. There is no longer any automaticity or logic in the transition from one to the other. Growth is translated by numbers, not by durable goods. Creative destruction has become a death wish. A critique of this must be made, while acknowledging that criticizing the productive system no longer involves looking into production intensification, but rather its sustainability, or even its “generativity”; i.e., its capacity to pass on its positive results to posterity. Pierre Caye, is Director of Research in Classical Humanities at CNRS. His published works include Le savoir de Palladio: architecture (Klincksieck, 1995, which received the French Academy’s Eugène Carrière Prize). With Françoise Choay, he co-published a new annotated and commented French translation of Leon Battista Alberti’s De re aedificatoria (Éditions du Seuil, 2004). He also authored Morale et chaos, principes d’un agir sans fondement (Le Cerf, 2008 – which won the Académie des sciences morales et politiques’ Gagner Prize).

> Philosophy

336 pages April 2015 16

Philosophising with Young People Robert Misrahi

From our imprint ENCRE MARINE

This is an essay that feels good, where the intelligence of the heart travels happily with reason - Livre Hebdo

Can philosophy still help our young people realize their potential and bring them the answers they need in life? In this short essay written for them, Robert Misrahi’s answer is “yes”

Youth is not just the future of a nation, it is the present life. Worrying about his fate requires that we must know in advance the general nature. The enthusiasm and trainability then prove the basis of its true freedom. But the great Desire of joy is slowed or deflected by obstacles which certainly require a policy response, but it can’t be effective without a prior action on the consciousness of youth and this consciousness. Only the demonstration of its powers allows presented to it new tasks and new values. Working on a new happiness is both empowering the youth of his fears and build a civilized society. Robert Misrahi is an expert on Spinoza and he devoted his research and writing on issues of freedom and happiness.

> Philosophy

152 pages May 2015 17

Reflecting on Architecture

Remy Butler

This seminal work by the magnitude of problems evoked and its critical apparatus wants to mark a pause for reflection on the question of meaning - Archistorm An effort of analysis and reflection healthy Le Moniteur Architecture

An original and profoundly humanistic reflection on art in architecture by a leading contemporary architect

The crisis affecting architecture today is one involving its capacity to express meaning, which stems from a broader decline of its symbolic function in the West. What distinguishes an edifice from a building? What differentiates architecture from construction? It is that architecture essentially conveys a discourse which assigns human beings a place in the cosmos. Historically, it was political powers who defined this place and made architecture the chosen vector of the message they wanted to convey. At present, in an era when core beliefs are dying out, architecture is bereft of the legitimacy once bestowed upon it by this representation of power. Architecture has nonetheless retained this profoundly significant vocation to convey meaning, thanks to certain attributes which this study strives to describe and comprehend. In exploring a certain number of canonistic, yet obsolete, notions – composition, ornamentation, symmetry, rhythm, etc. – this work outlines the conditions under which such a symbolic function existed. For venturing into an ontological approach to architecture ultimately calls for an exploration of what makes the latter an art rather than a trade: humanity’s statement in confronting time and death. Rémy Butler started his own practice in 1977, after a diploma at the Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1973 and a Master of Urban Planning at the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in 1975. His work is oriented in three main directions: public building, urban planning, state consulting and teaching.

> Architecture 184 pages February 2015 18

Lyotard and the Arts

From our imprint KLINCKSIECK

The first comprehensive discussion of Jean-François Lyotard’s writings on art, constituting an essential part of this philosopher’s work. A precise and invaluable clarification of the concepts which he forged, including: “figural,” “sublime,” “immaterial,” “unpresentable,” affect” and “writing.”

Prior to this book , no comprehensive discussion of Lyotard’s writings on art had been undertaken. Yet his thoughts on the arts – music, cinema, and above all painting – form an essential part of his work, as evidenced by his analyses in Discours, figure, Que peindre ?, Moralités postmodernes, L’Inhumain and Les Écrits sur l’art contemporain et les artistes. Less noted, however, is the fact that Lyotard collaborated with painters (Monory, Guiffrey, Adami, Sam Francis, Appel, Buren, etc). In 1985, he was the Chief Organizer of an exhibit that marked a milestone: “Les Immatériaux,” at Centre Georges-Pompidou. Several of the volume’s texts, as well as a previously unpublished interview with Bernard Blistène, are devoted to this exhibit. In writing this book, Françoise Coblence and Michel Enaudeau not only sought the input of expert readers of Lyotard’s works (Christine Buci-Glucksmann, Élisabeth de Fontenay, Jean-Michel Rey, Jean-Loup Thébaud, Herman Parret, Anne Cauquelin , Gérald Sfez, JeanClaude Rolland, Claudine Eizykman, Guy Fihman, Jean-François Nordmann and Jean-Patrice Courtois), but also that of young researchers (Gaëlle Bernard, Frédéric Fruteau de Laclos, Claire Pagès, Jérôme Glicenstein, Maud Pouradier and Evelyne Toussaint), who discovered for themselves Lyotard’s work in the field of the arts. The contributions compiled in this book examine concepts forged by Lyotard, such as “figural,” “libidinal,” “sublime,” “immaterial,” “matter,” “unpresentable,” “affect” and “writing.” Through them, this concept art seeks to break away from aesthetics in the academic sense of the term in order to see or hear in the works the “happenings” of colours or sounds. It is therefore an “ontological” challenge in which only art can present us with the sensitive impact of being

> Aesthetic 320 pages November 2014 19

The Choice to Exist Convert to a Better Life Xavier Pavie

Inspired by Thucydides’ saying, “It is necessary to choose: rest or be free,” this essay is an order as much as it is a proposition that we convert to the non-religious path of well-being so that we may lead better lives.

We begin our lives with a given form and biological structure, as well as a gender and an environment – and that is virtually all. The real work remains to be done. We must carve our existence out of these raw materials, for no one else will realise our existence. We must decide its course, implement it and sculpt it, insofar as things beyond our control allow. Realising our existence is not easy, because we are weighed down by an environment which – at least early in our lives – is imposed on us. This environment should be understood in a very broad sense to include not only the places, but also the individuals, who actually influence our personality, attitudes and behaviours, and thoughts. It will shape the way we learn and how we perceive the world. In order to live better, we need to view things differently and even more radically: we must convert. In fact, it is an absolute necessity which compels us to turn our vision of the world, our way of thinking, and our way of acting upside down in order to properly come to terms with our existence. Far from being admonitory or peremptory, this essay strives to show a broad readership a new way of perceiving the environment in which we live, and how to navigate in it in contexts enjoyed by all: art, education, relationships, physical exercise, food, community life, etc. Another notable aspect of this book is its use of the term “conversion.” Indeed, no previous work had ever used this term in any way other than in a religious context. As Pierre Hadot pointed out, even though conversion is not (solely) religious, and just as spiritual exercises were a philosophical concern before becoming a matter for theology with Loyola, “conversions” earned credibility in early antiquity, when their purpose was to enable individuals to live – if not as best they could, at least by doing “as little harm as possible.” Xavier Pavie, whose doctorate is in Philosophy, is a Senior Researcher at Université Paris Ouest’s IREPH. He is the Director of the ESSEC Business School’s Institute for Service Innovation & Strategy (ISIS), where he also teaches. He is the author of several books (La Méditation philosophique. Une initiation aux exercices spirituels, Eyrolles, 2010; L’apprentissage de soi : Exercices spirituels de Socrate à Foucault, Eyrolles, 2009).

> Psychology / Education & Training 180 pages July 2015 20

A glance on our best-sellers translated titles

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged Penguin Random House (original edition)

Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings Granta Publications (original edition)

Nassim Nicholas Taleb The Black Swan Antifragile Random House US (original edition)

Christopher R. Browning The Origins of the Final Solution University of Nebraska Press (original edition) Ordinary Men Harper Collins Publishers (original edition)

LES BELLES LETTRES and imprints Klincksieck was created on 1842 and became an imprint of Les Belles Lettres in 2001. Three main fields : Aesthetic / Linguistic / Nature books Encre Marine was created on 1991 Main field : Philosophy

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