John Cleese, Robin Skynner

Life and How to Survive It

In Life and How to Survive It, the authors have given us more than 400 pages of lively, tonic humour. Their subject is the joy of living and the conditions required to enjoy life to the full. Proceeding by ever-larger concentric circles, the authors successively discuss happy families (brilliant!), companies that allow their employees to fulfil themselves, and finally countries where life is pleasurable. This is British humour at its best, brilliantly—and hilariously—illustrated. British comic actor John Cleese is famous for the cult television series Fawlty Towers, which he co-authored and starred in. Robin Skynner is a psychotherapist specialising in group therapies.

Jean-Michel Frodon

The National Projector Film and the Nation

Françoise Salomon

Silent Child The Story of a Schizophrenic

This largely autobiographical book recounts the story of a family brutally shaken their son’s violence and mental illness—though nothing had previously seemed to distinguish him from other teenagers. It is a highly moving chronicle of the world of schizophrenia which remains little known by the general public. The mother of a schizophrenic child, Françoise Salomon is an active member of the French Union nationale des amis et des familles des malades mentaux.

Jacques Lesourne

The French Model The Rise and Fall

Charlotte Perriand

A Life of Creativity

Éric Dubreuil

Parents of the Same Sex

A growing number of gay men and women have founded families and are discovering the joys of parenting. It is estimated that there are approximately 500,000 families headed by parents of the same sex. They have brought the issue of homosexual parenting into the public arena, shattering traditional notions of the family and raising fundamental questions of filiation, adoption, and medically assisted procreation (artificial insemination, surrogate mothers) which go beyond the sphere of homosexuality and concern the future of our society—and therefore of all of us. Based on 29 interviews, including seven of children and teenagers, the book explores the little-known lives of same-sex-parent families.

Jean Dausset

A Nod in the Direction of Life The Great HLA Adventure

Jean Dausset’s finding that white blood cells play an active role in immunization won him the Nobel Prize for Medicine and opened a new area of biological investigation, both in pure and in applied research. The HLA system harbours a unique peptide which may be regarded as the essence of the self in opposition to everything else much as the pineal gland was regarded as the seat of the soul by Descartes. The distinction between the self and the non-self is an essential one in immunology where an individual’s defensive system must fight off foreign bodies while at the same time defending his or her own system. In his book, Jean Dausset recounts the story of his discovery and introduces the reader to other fascinating aspects of his life and work.

Léo Bersani

Homos Reassessing the Identity

What does it mean to be homosexual today ? Is it necessary to form communities and if so, why ? Is the primary aim equality in society such as it is, or the challenging of society itself ? Up to what point do homosexuals distinguish themselves ? Must there be a link between sexual claims and political dispute ? The gay and lesbian communities necessarily ask themselves these questions. On a wider scale, they also encourage a redefinition of the human being in contemporary societies. Already considered a classic in the United States, Homos presents an innovative, critical reflection on identity and the dangers in the withdrawal of a community from society. An expert in French literature, Leo Bersani is a professor at the University of California. He has notably published Baudelaire and Freud, and Theory and Violence.