Librairie Michel Bouvier

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Opened from Mondey to Friday - 2pm to 7pm

Or by appointment

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Curiosity is a fine quality.

 

Collectors, Librarians and Dealers are all driven by the desire to see, to hold and to examine the books they find, to try and understand the complex mechanisms through which a writer will convey his or her thoughts. Every day we are searching out new objects which will teach us a little more about ourselves and about the world around us, each in its own way.

 

A book does not only tell the story printed on its pages : it is a complex and sophisticated object and has a history of its own. Indeed, it is the result of a collaboration between an author, publisher, typographer, printer, binder and reader at a particular moment in time. Each stage of its subsequent journey from creation to its place on the 21st century bookshelf presents us with another unique narrative.

 

To take one example : with its simple appearance, the first edition of Vercors’s Le silence de la mer takes us back to the tragic times of the French Resistance during World War II, when clandestine printers would defy censorship at the risk of their lives, giving birth to one of the most prestigious French publishing houses, les Éditions de Minuit.

 

Thus, thanks to these precious objects, we can rediscover our collective history and pay tribute to what has made us who we are today.

 

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