Pushkin Collection Series

This autobiography is a poetic evocation of certain scenes of Morand's varied encounters and experiences. All this is filtered through the one constant in his life - the one place to which he would always return and with which he never lost faith - Venice.

Tender Shoots

by Paul Morand

Published 1 January 2011

Composed before and during the first months of the First World War, Paul Morand did not publish these stories until 1921. Clarissa, Delphine and Aurora - three alluring and independent young women - are stories set largely in London, a city he loved and which continued to fascinate him long after he worked there as an attaché at the French embassy.
Stylish, poetic and highly original, Morand's urbane and witty stories came as a bracing and uplifting breath of fresh air on the French literary scene of the 1920s. They made an immediate impact on writers as diverse as Proust, Cocteau and Giraudoux, and paved the way for Morand's illustrious literary career that was to follow.

The Allure of Chanel

by Paul Morand

Published 30 September 2008

The story of Coco Chanel's life, as told by her to Paul Morand

Coco Chanel invited Paul Morand to visit her in St Moritz at the end of the Second World War when he was given the opportunity to write her memoirs; his notes of their conversations were put away in a drawer and only came to light one year after Chanel's death. Through Morand's transcription of their conversations, Chanel tells us about her friendship with Misia Sert, the men in her life - Boy Capel, the Duke of Westminster, artists such as Diaghilev, her philosophy of fashion and the story behind the legendary Number 5 perfume...The memories of Chanel told in her own words provide vivid sketches and portray the strength of Coco's character, leaving us with an extraordinary insight into Chanel the woman and the woman who created Chanel.

'It's an interesting memoir because it's all about what she thinks not what she did.' --David Patrick Columbia, The New York Social Diary

'Morand was a citizen of the world, with a sharp eye and a neat turn of phras-- The Tablet

'This enchanting, tiny book is the closest anyone can get to a face-to-face with Coco. It's written in her voice ('that voice that gushed forth from her mouth like lava') and in her words ('those words that crackled like dried vines'), and though it's full of lies, omissions and contradictions, there's enough raw truth in it to reflect the extraordinary woman who was Chanel, even though glimpsed shard by shard in a broken mirror.' --The Spectator

'Paul Morand recaptures a WWII-era conversation between the author and the fashion icon. --Publisher's Weekly

'Reads beautifully ... this enchanting book is the closest anyone can get to a face-to-face with Coco... written in her voice and in her words.'--The Spectator

'Without a doubt the best French writer of the 20th century.' Philippe Sollers

'Morand was the all-round aesthete.' Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian

'Admired both by Ezra Pound and by Marcel Proust as a pioneer craftsman of Modernist French prose (...) The sheer shapeliness of his prose recalls Hemingway; the urbanity of his self-destructiveness compares with Fitzgerald's; and his camera eye is as lucidly stroboscopic as that of Dos Passos. He is, like Victor Segalen, Blaise Cendrars, Valery Larbaud, and Saint-John Perse, one of the great nomads of 20th-century French literature, racing through the apocalypse with the haste and glamor of an Orient Express. It is a pity we should have had to wait this long to catch up with him.'--The New York Times

Paul Morand was born in Paris in 1888 and after studying at the Ecole des Science Politiques he joined the diplomatic corps, serving in London, Rome, Berne and Bucharest. His first collection of stories Tender Shoots (Tendres Stocks, 1921), had an introduction by his friend Marcel Proust. In a long and busy life, he found time to write poetry, novels, short stories and travel books. Morand was made a member of the Academie Francaise in 1963. He was married to the Romanian princess Helene Soutzo, and he died in 1976.

Hecate and Her Dogs

by Paul Morand

Published 30 June 2009

Hecate and Her Dogs, set in the 1920s, is the story of a love affair which turns into a nightmare. The narrator, sent to an African country to run a branch of a large French bank, begins a liaison with Clotilde, only to discover in her unexpected and shocking depths of perversity. Tense and bleak, Hecate and Her Dogs is a novella of high literary quality and disconcerting power.
This elegant novella of disturbing eroticism was the book with which Morand returned triumphantly to the literary scene in 1954. Paul Morand’s Venices and The Allure of Chanel are also available from Pushkin Press.

The Man in a Hurry

by Paul Morand

Published 12 February 2015

A feverish classic from one of the modern masters of French prose.

No one can keep up with Pierre Niox, the speediest antiques dealer in Paris, although not necessarily the most competent. As he dashes about at a dizzying pace, his impatience becomes too much to bear for those around him; his manservant, his only friend and even his cat abandon him. He begins to find that while he is racing through life, it is passing him by. However, when he falls in love with the languid, unpunctual Hedwige, the man in a hurry has to learn how to slow down...

'Probably the best French writer of the twentieth century after Proust and Céline' Philippe Sollers

Morand was the all-round aesthete.' Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

'Admired both by Ezra Pound and by Marcel Proust as a pioneer craftsman of Modernist French prose (...) The sheer shapeliness of his prose recalls Hemingway; the urbanity of his self-destructiveness compares with Fitzgerald's; and his camera eye is as lucidly stroboscopic as that of Dos Passos' The New York Times

This feverish classic by one of the modern masters of French prose is a witty and touching parable for our busy times.