I realize that Morand is considered one of the most brilliant French writers during the high modern period, but this is really pretty thin stuff. I don't know if Gide will ever be taken so seriously again (as he was a couple of decades ago), but his reputation will come to no harm when read alongside Morand. Oh well, there's still some Genet I haven't looked at yet

Other reviewers have accurately described this: it's a relatively slight, though densely written, series of vignettes, each dedicated to a different idealized woman. It's tough, however, from the English translation to tell how much of this is the work of Morand. Ezra Pound took incredible liberties with his translation, sometimes to quite interesting and idiosyncratic effects, and Proust's introduction is a valuable essay on its own. This isn't the sort of book that will keep you wildly captivated; but it is an excellent piece for any library.

the brief stories in this work, translated by ezra pound, are lovely and tender descriptions of individuals and nights of activities. i'm not sure if it's morand's work, or pound's translation, but they are exquisitely beautiful.

One only has to compare the nicely reproduced dust jacket photo to the print of it in the book to see the amount of detail that is lost in the rest of these images. Even the thumbails in the back next to the writeups show more detail than the muddied out larger vesions in the book. Brassai's images are so great that even muddied up like this they are worth looking at, but what a shame the publisher didn't do better. Shame, shame, shame.

This book is very important. Paris By Night by Brassai is a book that is central in the history of photograhy.It has been a great inspiration for many photograhers (and others).
It is a shame, that this edition is very badly printed (loss of detail).
I am sorry to say, that therefore the book is too exspensive.
I bought the book anyway. Why?
Because I wanted to have it on my shell. To study it. And because it reminds me of the first time, twenty years ago, when I saw some of the pictures from Paris By Night, and found that photograpy could be a great art.

It is possible that the latest edition has failed to explain why the format for the images is appropriate. I have the 1987 Pantheon edition. The new edition looks like a fairly exact copy of my 1987 copy by Pantheon. That book takes as its model the 1933 first edition. The images are matte because the original and the Pantheon are heliogravure prints, a matte process. (It is also likely that Brassai's original prints lack the hi-gloss sheen common to modern magazine printing and plastic-coated photographic paper. I have nothing but pity for those who cannot appreciate such a process and yearn for something like today's glossy magazines.) The quarter-inch gloss frame arond the images is a feature of the Panthon edition, as well (and the '33?). This new book looks (on superficial viewing) like a faithful effort on the part of the publisher. Now- someone offer an A to B comparrison, please.