.  . . thinking how incredible it is that they can visit the Belvedere at night, not only the Belvedere but the lake too, and what astonishing variety is provided by this man-made arrangement of dells and running water....The tall lampposts illuminating the park with their incandescent gas jets form great sulphurous trails in this double night through which the tree trunks loom....We enter the park feeling like conquerors and quite drunk with openmindedness.

“Seen from above, the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont is shaped like a nightcap . . .”

So goes Louis Aragon’s love affair with Paris.  Just twenty‑eight when he wrote this magical novel, he compares a poet's love for his city to a peasant's love for his land.  A leading Surrealist writer, Aragon was keenly aware of the hidden life concealed by every object, great and small.  The Peasant of Paris combines minute descriptions of scenes and objects, humorous anecdotes, and philosophical reflections: all to create a reality that goes far beyond the literal or visual.

Another love affair with Paris: that of the renowned artist and photo- grapher Henri Cartier‑Bresson who chose this book to illustrate with seven enchanting lithographs of Paris and a photogravure portrait of Louis Aragon.

The text and seven lithographs are printed on mould‑made paper, from the Arches mill in Epinal, France.  The photogravure plate was made and the photogravures were editioned by Jon Goodman at his studio in Hadley, Massachusetts. The book and slipcase are bound in gray‑green Japanese fabric.