Belle de Jour

A classic tale of desire and double lives.

"None of my books is dearer to me than this one", wrote Joseph Kessel in a preface to Belle de Jour. A book long overshadowed by its cinematic adaptation — Luis Buñuel's daring and stylish 1967 film — Belle de Jour is, in the author's own words, a sensitive study of "the desperate divorce that can exist between body and soul". Séverine is a young wife who lives a double life, working in a brothel every afternoon between two and five. The more she explores her secret desires, the harder it becomes to keep her two worlds apart.

First serialised in the French political weekly Gringoire, where it achieved quite the succès de scandale, Belle de Jour didn’t receive an English translation until 1961. After Buñuel’s 1967 adaptation, it was thrust back into the spotlight, resulting in a spate of pulpy paperback editions, including this pretty 1969 Pan Macmillan edition, distinguished by its hazy, soft-focused cover photo.

This copy also contains a Times article in two parts – ‘The other Belle de Jour’, a profile of Dr Brooke Magnanti, the formerly anonymous blogger.

Edition: Pan Books Paperback, 3rd Printing
Year: 1965
Condition: Good condition
Notes: Light speckling to cover, small tear at spine edge of cover, minor creasing to cover edge.