Mesdames et Messieurs, presenting La Petite Mort, or, A Little Death …
A silent film, destroyed in a fire in 1913 at the Pathé studio, before it was seen even by its director.
A lowly seamstress, who makes the costumes she should be wearing, but believes her talent – and the secret she keeps too – will soon get her a dressing room of her own.
A beautiful house in Paris, with a curving staircase, a lake, and locked rooms.
A famous – and dashing – creator of spectacular cinematic illusions, husband to a beautiful, volatile actress, the most adored icon of the Parisian studios.
All fit together, like scenes in a movie. And as you will see, this plot has a twist we beg you not to disclose …
Like the silver screen world Hitchman portrays, her writing shimmers, drawing you in with glamour and trickery. A fascinating, beguiling and wily debut — Katie Ward, author of Girl Reading
Compelling … Hitchman’s confident debut is a story about relationships and the risks we take to get what we want. Universal themes, beautifully explored. — Eden Carter Wood ―
Diva Published On: 2013-03-01
Sumptuous … part
Moulin Rouge, part Alfred Hitchcock ― Grazia Published On: 2013-03-25
Gorgeously written … with a fantastic twist at the very end … fascinating. — Rachel Glover ―
Image Published On: 2013-03-01
Fans of silent films and historical fiction will delight in this chocolate box of a novel which mixes love, lust and scandal with the stardust of 1900s Paris. ―
The Simple Things Published On: 2013-04-01
There’s a touch of Angela Carter about Beatrice Hitchman’s beguiling debut
Petite Mort Main Edition– a sly, erotic thriller concerned with doubleness and duplicity that’s both a primer in the early history of French cinema and a reflexive study in female self-fashioning – or should that be “self-editing”? … Complex and cerebral, Petite Mort Main Editionis softened by beautifully drawn characters, lightly drizzled period detail and an abiding suspicion that love and cinema might be part of the same illusion. — John O’Connell ― Guardian Published On: 2013-04-06
Movie junkies will love this surprising and original novel … the story winds itself in knots, then unravels deftly, providing a satisfactory judgment day for the sexy yet heartless central characters in a wholly unexpected ending. — Imogen Lycett Green ―
Daily Mail Published On: 2013-05-17
An impressive and enjoyable debut: nimble, deft and wrapped luxuriously in the velveteen glamour of the movies. — David Evans ―
FT Published On: 2013-05-18
Book Description
Scandal, intoxication and lies flourish in the silent film studios of Paris
About the Author
Beatrice Hitchman is an author and academic. Her first novel Petite Mort Main Edition was nominated for the Desmond Elliott Prize, the Polari Prize, the HWA Debut Prize and the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Prize. She currently works as a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Brighton.
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