Merely enriching his palate with new tastes and sights-the usual expatriate's fare-doesn't do it for this American in Paris. He is convinced that somewhere in the multitude there is a muse standing by, ready to inspire him. The mysterious marquise Doru stumbles upon at a social gathering is a Russian beauty married to an old aristocrat. Ida is a painter and the author of an erotic novel. From the perusal of each other's works, a literary passion blossoms as the two writers see in one another an extension of their favorite characters. But Ida's determination to turn their liaison into a work of art escalates into a dangerous life-imitates-art-game. Penned with the least amount of self-censorship and the most amount of responsibility, A Marquise of Our Time is more than just a love story. Among its flora and fauna: the plight and delight of those flocking to Paris, a writer's soul-searching in the soulless age, a flirting guide with burlesque romps, a who's who of the Anglophone crowd, and even an equal opportunity feather-plucking between the French rooster and the American eagle. "Refinement, wit, humor, grand art... not to mention the ingenious construction, the great dialogue and the satiric vein that is rare nowadays." -Cécile Guilbert, author, winner of Médicis Prize for Essays "Many aspiring novelists come to Paris to write the next great novel. Some want to be Hemingway, others want to be Joyce, still others seek to out-Miller Henry himself. Few manage to get close. Yet I am pleased to report that Corneliu Mitrache has done it. A Marquise of Our Time is a wild ride through the expatriate life of contemporary Parisian days and nights of love and laughter." -Jim Haynes, author, publisher, co-founder of Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre
About the Author: Born in communist Romania, Corneliu Mitrache gave up a career in aviation, swam across the Danube and immigrated to America. Freshly graduated from Western Washington University with a degree in playwriting, he moved to New York. Waiting for Godex (formerly Godex Has Come) premiered at the Greenwich Street Theatre. A West Coast premiere followed shortly at the Attic Theatre in Los Angeles. The Village Voice, The Los Angeles Times and The Los Angeles Weekly hailed Waiting for Godex as "healthy originality," "thought-provoking," and "funny as hell." An old dream made Mitrache cross another river: the Seine. His first novel was translated and published as La Traversée du Styx by Editions Denöel/Gallimard, Paris. "We have talked a lot about [Michel] Houellebecq and [Bret Easton] Ellis, but hardly about Dan Lungu and Corneliu Mitrache, authors who also rock." -Technikart magazine