Certificats d'études

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"I would like to note that this huge pile of pages do not exactly contain the entirety of all my knowledge. If I’ve collected them, it’s that nobody suggested other subjects in French composition, and those collected here focus on weak, sometimes alcoholic authors and characters, those most often cast aside by fate. I find them all sympathetic, and they correspondence, perhaps, with some of my vocations. Speaking of them was a bit of a way to speak about myself. I would have liked to discover something new about them, something that shed light on them—yet it was in vain. I couldn’t do anything with the idea that Baudelaire was born in Guatemala, that Alexandre Dumas and Dickens met up between Dieppe and Calais to exchange cooking recipes behind the Cardinal’s back, or that Homer truly existed. Discovering doesn’t necessarily mean inventing; to know is to recognize. Now we still heed the sound advice of Giovanni Papini: ‘If writers didn’t read, the state of literature would be infinitely better.’” - Antoine Blondin

The only child of Bohemian parents, Antoine Blondin found fame upon the publication of his first book. Alternating between journalism – he was the Bard of the Tour de France between 1950 and 1980 – and literature, this light traveler left behind five novels, all published by La Table Ronde.

With his first novel, L’Europe buissonnière, Antoine Blondin caught the attention of writers like Marcel Aymé and Roger Nimier who soon became his friends. His following novels confirmed his writing talent and the uniqueness of his style situated between Stendhal and Jules Renard.

He evoked the passion for alcohol in Un singe en hiver (Prix Interallié, 1959), which has been adapted for the screen and performed by Jean Gabin and Jean-Paul Belmondo. In the years following its publication, it has been translated in the United States, England, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Yugoslavia. Today, the translation rights for these countries are available again.

"Immortal Antoine Blondin.”  L’Opinion Indépendante

“Antoine Blondin’s books are aging like old forgotten liquors. They are admirable, and poignant. ” Le Figaro Littéraire

“Blondin was a slave to what he admired ; he could feel others’ feelings as his own and exalt them in the most brilliant writings. ” Le Magazine Littéraire

“The extravagant and sensitive author of Un singe en hiver hasn’t lost any of its flavor." Le Point