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French Embassy Opens 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 has opened a reading room and bookshop devoted to French works in French and English and French-American intellectual exchange.

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.

Albertine Bookshop in NYC
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.

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