Jean Cocteau Book order

“Discomfort is the hallmark of the poet. His world is almost uninhabitable. People sense this. They enter it as little as possible, as quickly as possible, and only out of curiosity.” Widely celebrated for his work in the fields of literature, cinema, and the visual arts, Jean Cocteau was one of the twentieth century’s outstanding creative practitioners. In this collection of brief—often aphoristic—meditations, Jean Cocteau reflects on the fundamental solitariness of the artistic vocation. As well as offering fascinating insights into Cocteau’s own achievements, Secrets of Beauty is a moving testament to the artist’s need and obligation to pursue an independent path, and to the disjunction between art and “the inflexible everyday world”. Juliet Powys’s translation skilfully captures the wit and subtlety of the original French text—a vital contribution to aesthetic theory that deserves to be read as a significant work of literature in its own right.

In 1949, Jean Cocteau's reflections on his twenty-day visit to New York reveal a nuanced exploration of French and American cultures. Through his distinctive prose, he highlights the contrasting values each society places on art, liberty, and psychology. Cocteau captures America's hopeful promise while also addressing pressing social issues such as hypocrisy, sexism, and racism that must be confronted for true progress. This essay, never before translated into English, resonates with contemporary relevance, echoing the complexities of cultural identity and aspiration.

Dominique Paini was chief curator of the Cocteau exhibition at the Centre Pompidou. This English edition makes available to English readers its important essays by seventeen French authors, including several who knew Cocteau personally.

A coloring book for adults (and others) that delves into the dizzying imagination of artist/playwright/filmmaker Jean Cocteau.

Le Livre Blanc, a `white paper' on homosexual love, was first published anonymously in France by Cocteau's contemporary Maurice Sachs and was at once decried as by the critics as obscene. The semi-autobiographical narrative describes a youth's love affairs with a succession of boys and men during the 1900s.

Cocteau’s breakthrough novel on the horrors of World War I.  Too young to fight, Thomas assumes a noble ancestry, adds a few extra years to his age, and becomes a soldier. In this guise, he meets the society star Princess de Bormes and her impressionable daughter Henriette. While the princess pursues charity work with the wounded, Henriette falls in love with Guillaume. However, Guillaume, resplendent in army uniform and issued with a shiny revolver, is lost like a child in a fantasy land of their own creation. At the novel's denouement, he clings to his imposture, but in mind, if not body, he has grasped the real meaning of war. This visionary novel is a "hymn to the cult of youth" in which World War I battlefields become an exaggerated spectacle where fiction and reality are inseparable.

"Terrors they are, these lads of the Lyc-e Condorcet, and no mistake - the terrors of the Fifth-where the tenebrous instincts of childhood still predominate-" At home, Paul shares a private world with his sister Elisabeth, a world from which parents are tacitly excluded. Their room is where the Game is played, the Game being their own bizarre version of life. All that they do outside is effectively controlled by the rules of the Game. Elisabeth might be the dutiful daughter tending their sick, prematurely aged mother; Paul might be under the spell of his fellow student Dargelos, and then of a hapless friend of his sister's - but unfortunately what the rules of the Game prescribe is that two children must die-

Although better known for his poetry, films and novels, Jean Cocteau experimented with drawing from childhood, and his caricatures have become iconic of his unique vision of people and life. This collection of erotic drawings covers four decades of work.

This posthumous collection of writings illuminates Cocteau’s own work for the cinema with detailed discussions of his aims, responses to criticism and his reflections on the relationship between poetry, theatre and film. He also comments on the movie stars he admires—Marlene Dietrich, James Dean, Brigitte Bardot—together with such great directors as Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles.

In a poignant monologue, a woman engages in a final phone call, battling for the love of her life despite the physical distance separating them. Jean Cocteau's iconic play delves into the profound human need for connection amidst the isolating influence of technology. It reflects on the complexities of relationships in a modern world, highlighting the emotional struggle and yearning for intimacy that persists even through a mere conversation.