Raymond Radiguet: Le Diable au Corps — Nikutai no Akuma, Trans. Watanabe Akimasa, Jinbun Shoin 1951

[PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS]
- Author: Raymond Radiguet (レーモン・ラディゲ)
- Title: 肉体の悪魔 — 魔に憑かれて (Nikutai no Akuma: Ma ni Tsukarete) — Japanese translation of Le Diable au Corps (1923)
- Translator: Watanabe Akimasa (渡邉明正)
- Publisher: Jinbun Shoin (人文書院)
- Year Published: 1951 (Showa 26) — First Edition
- Language: Japanese
- Format: Hardcover with dust jacket and obi, 228 pages
- Inclusions: Obi (band) present

[OVERVIEW]

Le Diable au Corps — written by Raymond Radiguet at the age of seventeen and published in 1923 to immediate scandal and sensation — is one of the most precocious masterworks in French literature. A spare, merciless psychological novel set during the First World War, it recounts the affair between a teenage boy and a young married woman whose husband is at the front. Its cool, classical prose — indebted to Stendhal and the moralistes — conceals a devastatingly modern emotional intelligence. Radiguet died of typhoid fever the same year of its publication, aged twenty. The legend was complete.

This 1951 Jinbun Shoin edition — translated by Watanabe Akimasa and subtitled Ma ni Tsukarete (魔に憑かれて, "Possessed by the Demon") — is among the earliest and most distinguished Japanese translations of the novel. The dust jacket reproduces a line portrait of Radiguet drawn by Jean Cocteau in 1919: a single red-ink contour of the young writer's profile, signed and dated, that serves as both frontispiece and emblem of the intimate artistic bond between the two men. The pale cream upper panel and mint-green lower band carrying the French title in elegant italic typography make this one of the most quietly beautiful book designs in postwar Japanese publishing.

[IMPORTANT NOTE FOR INTERNATIONAL BUYERS: EASY AI TRANSLATION]

While the text is printed in Japanese, you can easily read and study this historic book using modern smartphone AI tools! By taking a photo of any page with your smartphone and using free apps like Google Lens, ChatGPT, or Google Translate, the embedded AI will instantly scan and translate the text on your screen layout. Language is no longer a barrier to owning and enjoying this rare piece of international history.

[WHY THIS VOLUME IS A PRIZED COLLECTOR'S ITEM]

1. Historical & Literary Value — Radiguet's Le Diable au Corps is a canonical text of twentieth-century French literature, and this 1951 Jinbun Shoin edition is among the earliest Japanese translations — a primary document of postwar Japan's passionate engagement with French modernism.

2. Visual & Artistic Value — The dust jacket reproduces Cocteau's 1919 portrait of Radiguet in red line on cream — one of the most iconic images in French literary history — paired with a mint-green obi bearing the French title in italic. The design is restrained, elegant, and entirely of its era.

3. Rarity — First editions of this Jinbun Shoin translation with intact dust jacket and obi are seldom encountered. The combination of jacket, obi, and interior in good condition represents an exceptional survival for a 75-year-old Japanese paperback.

[CONDITION]
Good Vintage Condition — With Obi

- Dust Jacket & Obi: Small tear to the upper edge of the dust jacket. Obi present and intact. Overall the jacket retains its graphic character well.
- Covers & Spine: Firm and square.
- Binding: Tight, secure, and fully intact.
- Interior & Pages: Interior and all inclusions in good condition. No inscriptions, no underlining.
- *Please carefully inspect all high-resolution listing photos to verify the exceptional vintage condition.*