French Embassy to Open Albertine Shop in NYC
Reflecting France’s belief in the power of books as a common good for a better world, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy will open a reading room and bookshop devoted to French works in French and English and French-American intellectual exchange on September 27th in New York.
Named Albertine after the omnipresent and unknowable female character in Marcel Proust’s classic In Search of Lost Time, it will offer the most comprehensive selection of French-language books and English translations in the United States, with over 14,000 titles from 30 French-speaking countries in genres including novels, non-fiction, art, comic, and children’s books. Booklovers will discover previously hard-to-find titles ranging from the award-winning bestseller Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère, which follows a radical Soviet poet’s new life in New York City, to Le droit à la paresse (The Right to be Lazy) by Paul Lafargue, a spirited, rip-roaring attack on the work ethic to a rare edition of René Descartes’ Meditationes De Prima Philosophia.
Photo: albertine.com
Located in the landmark Payne Whitney mansion on Manhattan’s Museum Mile (972 Fifth Avenue), Albertine is designed by renowned French designer Jacques Garcia in the model of a grand, private French library. The two-floor space, which includes a reading room and inviting nooks furnished with lush sofas and armchairs, will give the public unprecedented access to formerly private sections of the Beaux-Arts mansion designed by architect Stanford White.
Albertine will also provide a venue for discussions exploring popular and classical culture through both a modern and global lens. To highlight its role as an exciting new hub for intellectual debate in New York City, Albertine will celebrate its opening with a six-night festival from October 14-19. Curated by cultural critic and author Greil Marcus, the festival will feature provocative discussions between French and American artists and thinkers, including: Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner; Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz; author and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi; filmmaker Olivier Assayas (Paris, je t’aime); and Fields Medal-winning mathematician and author of Théorème vivant Cédric Villani.
Visit frenchculture.org for more information.
September 16, 2014 – by CG News Desk
