Sempe: A Little Bit of France

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CN Renowned New Yorker cover illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé illustrates the quirky charm of France’s countryside and small towns with his signature style and gentle sense of humor and irony. His drawings are famed for their striking use of pen and ink, their inimitable style, and most of all for their satire and tragicomic vision. The 78 drawings in this charming portfolio are sweet and sentimental. They somehow manage to be gentle even when the topic is difficult. They probe the quirkiness of life in provincial France and wordlessly pinpoint the quintessential features of modern French life, creating a world peopled by bemused psychoanalysts, baffled lovers, dreamy couples, and long-faced aquiline-nosed depressives yearning for universal truths. Not only is the volume a tribute to France, but it celebrates those who are ready to see the comic and lighthearted beyond life’s problems and their own egos. Jean-Jacques Sempé is a French cartoonist best known in the United States for his cover illustrations of The New Yorker magazine. His career started within the context of the Franco-Belgian comics industry, and he is best known internationally for a strip called “Le petit Nicolas,” which started in the 1950s. In the U.S., he is celebrated for his posterlike illustrations that convey a story in a single frame. "Sempe conveys the quirky spirit of the countryside where bicyclists rule, there’s always time to sit on a bench, and the occasional cow cools off in a swimming pool." ~France Magazine"It’s a great gift for Francophiles." ~Chicago Sun-Times"These pictures elicit smiles because they remind us that, however pressing our individual concerns may feel, we’re all just bit players in a story that’s larger and more marvelous than ourselves." ~Passport Magzine"Anyone who has ever fallen in love with Paris needs this book." ~Southern Accents

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