Description
PRÉVERT (Jacques).
Rain and Fine Weather.
Paris: NRF, Le Point du jour, [1955]. — In-8, 193 x 145: 254 pp., (1 f.), printed cover. Paperback, covered binding.
First edition of this eclectic collection by Jacques Prévert, alternating between free-verse poems, short plays, fables and personal reflections.
Africa and colonisation are not omnipresent in this work, but they feature in several pieces, including one entitled *Étranges étrangers* (*Strange Strangers*), a manifesto-poem—at once lyrical and political—written in homage to immigrants, the marginalised and the oppressed in French society. In it, Prévert refers to colonial labourers (‘Kabyles of La Chapelle and the Quays of Javel’, ‘Tunisians of Grenelle’, ‘Black slaves of Fréjus’), men from the colonies, often exploited as cheap labour or crammed into appalling conditions, stateless people and refugees (‘Stateless people of Aubervilliers’, ‘Bourians of the Porte de Saint-Ouen’, ‘Polacks of the Marais’), children and young people (‘Children of Senegal’, ‘Indochinese children’) – figures who felt out of place, exploited, and then forcibly sent back to their countries.
A Black character appears in the poem ‘Rue Stevenson’, whilst Africa is evoked at the end of the poem ‘Le Grand fraisier’ by this line: ‘No doubt in Africa, the happy era of the great macadamised oases had only just begun. ”
One of the first 37 numbered copies on Madagascar paper (no. 19).
A very well-preserved copy despite a few scattered foxing spots.
See original version (French)
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About the sale
Claude Mozis Library – Black Africa and the African diaspora
Auction location
Auction time
10/21/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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