In english
Editions rue fromentin have been founded by Jean-Pierre Montal and Marie Barbier. We do not initially come from the publishing industry, but from the evil worlds of finance and advertising.
The publishing house was created in 2009. We first published two titles independently before we joined Volumen-Le Seuil in January 2011 for the circulation and distribution of our books. We will publish six titles at the first semester 2011 and we would like to keep up on a basis of five to ten books per year, mainly in fiction and essays centered on pop culture and contemporary society, combining eclectism and high-standards in style.
Randomly, in our first titles, you will find: an immersion in Drouot and the art market; a funny and surprising testimony on the art of teaching reading; the tour of a rock band in the 70s; and the life and work of an unknown dandy of the “Palace era”.
The name rue fromentin is a tribute to the Parisian neighborhood where our office is located and to the writer Eugène Fromentin, the unforgettable author of the iconic Dominique.
COMING SOON
Les Trente Glorieuses sont devant nous, Valérie Rabault, Karine Berger
Do you reckon that France is sinking? That, as a victim of the capital market and globalization, it no longer has its place among other powerful nations? That the crisis is so out of hand that the country cannot reform? What if the game wasn’t over yet? What if France was still able to pull itself together and start a new era of wealth? What if the Glorious Thirty, broken down by Jean Fourastié in the 70s’, were to happen again by 2040 ?
Such is the thesis put forward by this political-economical essay. The authors are both engineers in their thirties: Karine Berger is an economist as well as a rising media figure, she was ranked among the « Young aces that will take over » in July 2010, and Valérie Rabault, a banker singled out by the Financial News among a hundred of the most influent women in European finance. Thoroughly aware of pressures out of their reach, these two young women counter the current french gloominess. Condemning the hypocrisy exculpating the political choices of the 90s’, they defend that France has the ressources to take up the challenge. Not without conditions: shaking-up the country’s state of mind by stating that we are responsible for our future; taking over the investment, education, housing, immigration, transport (and so many more) priorities ; rebuilding the famous french model equilibrium – economic declension of the “liberté, égalité, fraternité” (freedom, equality, fraternity), one of the only ways to stimulate optimism and creativity. These political choices will design France for the next 30 years. Now, after the financial crisis of 2009, the country is at a crossroad, it can change its capitalistic course. This book is about France’s future success, but there’s still a long way to go.
Aesthete, dandy – if those terms weren’t hackneyed, they would perfectly define the life and the work of Marc Raynal who has filled under various pen names (Maud Molyneux, Louella Interim, Dora Forbes) the fashion and cinema columns of Libération for almost ten years, along with Serge Daney, Michel Cressole and Gérard Lefort. The writing of Maud Molyneux is unique : he brilliantly writes about fashion, probably as the second best after Proust, and he is also a fervent cinema enthusiast who genuinely praises the great cinema of Hollywood, far from the critic’s theoretical slides, with love and an uncluttered style.
Maud Molyneux is not only a great critic but also a charming and fascinating character : deeply erudite (“we used to call Maud whenever we didn’t know something”, his friends say), he was both a leader of Paris nightlife the 70s and a fashion and fashion history enthusiast.
Reading Maud Molyneux/Louella Interim today is a completely new discovery of one of the last great “pen” of cultural press.
This book is an anthology of his articles on cinema (from Bette Davis to Pasolini, from Blade Runner to Douglas Sirk, Louealla Interim treats every genre with his unique eye) and on fashion (Yves Saint-Laurent, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Madame Grès, Chantal Thomas… he knew them all and analysed their style).
In the first part, the book comes back on the career and the personality of this dandy from another century through the descriptions of people who knew him and worked with him. Serge Toubiana, Serge July, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Gérard Lefort, Paquita Paquin give an amusing and poignant depiction of their friend.
OUR BOOKS
B.a.-ba, Bertrand Guillot
In 2008 Bertrand Guillot starts teaching French to illiterate people in a organization in the north of Paris. Like thousands of volunteers he wants to prove helpful and no longer ignore the reality. With its first person narrator and high-paced short chapters, B.a.-ba can be read like an adventure story.
Bertrand has no experience as a teacher and he enters the ring without any advice or method. He can read, can’t he – so why couldn’t he teach how to read ? But things aren’t that easy and when Bertrand Guillot realizes how difficult the task might be, he is about to give up… Nevertheless he goes on and accompanies his students during a year, with moments of joy and of disillusion. A year contained in a book : B.a.-ba.
Today Bertrand Guillot still teaches.
Surenchères, Marc Mars
Marc Mars arrives in Paris in 2000, like a hero of Balzac lost in the wrong century. More specifically, he arrives in Drouot, the art auction sales. He is immediately fascinated by the place, its habits, its characters, and won’t leave anymore, living to the rythm of the hammers. The Drouot bug, as a race to the rare artifact, as a treasure hunt, took hold of him.
He writes Surenchères ten years later, a text based on his experience as an art merchant and his knowledge of Drouot. He describes the people and a unique world, both timeless and high color, like from a novel.
A popular and caustic writing which isn’t like anything else in 2010, like the atmosphere of the auction sales.
Comment je n’ai pas rencontré Britney Spears, Élise Costa
But who is BS ? Ultimate popstar ? Paparazzi cannon fodder ? Punk without knowing it ? Why does she mesmerize people ?
Elise Costa has been wondering about the phenomenon for ten years, from MTV videos to rag papers. From NY to LA via Florida, she decides to trace the icon to unveil her mystery in a road movie combining glamour, cheesburger and nail varnish.