The Dinner Party

by Claude Mauriac

Un soir d'automne, dans une maison de l'île Saint-Louis. Bertrand Carnéjoux et sa jeune femme Martine reçoivent quelques amis. Quoi de plus frivole qu'un dîner en ville ? Mais n'est-ce point pourtant l'essentiel qu'engage aussi, d'homme à homme et de femme à femme, de femme à homme et d'homme à femme, une semblable réunion où les pensées tues sont souvent exprimées d'un regard, où les corps parlent en se taisant, où les cœurs silencieusement appellent au secours ?
Le dîner en ville commence lorsque les huit convives prennent place, pour s'achever au milieu d'une phrase à la minute où ils se lèvent...

Genres: France

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Claude Mauriac (25 April 1914, Paris – 22 March 1996) was a French author and journalist, eldest son of the author François Mauriac.

He was the personal secretary of Charles de Gaulle from 1944 to 1949, before becoming a cinema critic and arts person of Figaro. He is the author of several novels and essays, and co-scripted the movie of his father's novel Thérèse Desqueyroux. He also wrote a study of the novelist Marcel Proust whose great niece was his wife. He was also a close friend of French philosopher Michel Foucault.

Reviews

[John Trefry · Rating 4 out of 5]

For someone who used to chastise his sister for playing Zelda because there was 'too much talking', it is surprising a novel that is nothing but the banter across a dining room table would be such a page-turner. For fans of 'My Dinner with Andre' and Zelda.