With the Stroke of a Pen: A Story of Ambition, Green, Infidelity, and the Murder of French Publisher Robert Denoel

By A. Louise Staman

Using sensitive documents recently unsealed by the French government, Staman explores the life of Robert Denoel from his dramatic rise in publishing to his mysterious murder in 1945. A man of contradiction, Denoel published the works of anti-Semetics along side the works of Jews and Marxists. In fact, during the same month that he went on trial for Nazi collaboration, he won the most prestigious prize in French literature, The Goncourt, for his publication of a work by Elsa Triolet, a Russian Jew and an ardent supporter of the Nazi Resistance movement. How his company became an acquisition upon his death of his nemesis, Gaston Gallimard, involves a riveting tale of crime, murder, betrayal, and cover-up not often found even in fiction. Set against the colorful backdrop of Paris from the roaring '20s through the turbulent Nazi occupation years in the '30s to the post-war investigation, this is a riveting story of a fascinating man.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312272138
• ISBN13: 9780312272135
• Release Date: November 2002
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 354 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Captivating

I heard about this book on an NPR talkshow. I was interested from the start and WOW what a different way to look at WWII.

Difficult to put down!

This is a really fascinating story with lots of interesting "characters". With the Stroke of a Pen is interesting on several levels: a behind the scenes look at the French literary world, an intimate look at everyday French life and a comprehensive discussion about the French Resistance and collaborationists during WWII who were sometimes one in the same. Staman does a great job setting the scene from indepth character descriptions to details of everyday life. She is great at walking the reader through this story as details unfold for her (it is refreshing to see the work that goes into a book, adding validity to all the facts). Staman knows when to share her thoughts and feelings wiht us, and when to let the scene takeover remaining a silent observer. Her creation of conversations is compelling and makes the book very difficult to put down! I am also happy that Staman did not forget about Bebert (I know I didn't)and the footnote about Jean Loviton at the end was well deserved (sorry that's a bit cryptic, I don't want to give anything away:)

Wow! What a great story.

This is a book that builds and builds. By the end I could not stop reading. It puts events in post World War II France in a way that I had not seen before and arguably sheds new light on both the events of the time and the ultimate impact of the Nazi occupation. A super job of weaving true crime with actual historical events. My favorite kind of book.

Unforgettable

There are many forgettable books, there are a few unforgettable books. I own this book,have read it from cover to cover, and found it literally stunning. This story of greed, collusion, and the murder of Robert DeNoel in Nazi occupied Paris is a fascinating and profound tapestry which reveals the threads of a real life murder mystery interwoven with threads ofgeneralized corruption, collaboration and duplicitous behavior which were the spawn of a fear induced societal mentality. This one is unforgettable.

Infinately Fascinating

I picked up this book with very low expectations. In fact, I was beyond sure that the book would bore me. I was pleasantly surprised how readable the book really was. I found the research put in by Staman to be extremely well done, and the story itself truly entertaining. The only thing I would have perhaps done differently as the editoris to shorten it a bit. There were a few parts of the story that were a bit redundandt, but overall, I was impressed by the book. Before reading "With the Stroke of a Pen" I had never heard of Robert Denoel; now his story serves to inspire me. A mesmerizing whodunit, I read this 308 page book in one sitting.