Rizzoli is pleased to present the first English-language translation of Manual of St-Germain-des-PrA?s by beloved French author Boris Vian. Paris in the fifties was an incredible place and time: with the end of the war, everything seemed possible. Vian"s book, a guided tour of the left bank cafA©s, galleries, underground jazz clubs, theaters, and apartment salons captures the transformative culture of the existentialist and post-surrealistic circles. The list of luminaries he ran with includes Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Jean Cocteau, Jean Genet, Alberto Giacometti, Juliette Greco, Raymond Queneau, JacquA?s Prevert, Miles Davis, and, of course, Jean-Paul Sartre. Manual of St-Germain-des-PrA?s is a chronicle of a period, a place, a circle, and a lifestyle, highlighted in this volume with sumptuous photographs by Georges Dudognon that illustrate Vian"s words. A broader cultural context for Vian"s work is provided in the introduction.