In 1930, seventeen-year-old Charles Trenet moved to Paris with ambitions of becoming a journalist, studio painter, movie actor... in short, a Parisian. In his suitcase, he carried his first novel, Les Rois fainéants, two hundred pages that publishers would reject, but which would lead him to Max Jacob and then Jean Cocteau, thus sealing his destiny as an artist.

Before leaving Perpignan, he had already made a name for himself in Albert Bausil's Le Coq catalan as a columnist, storyteller, and poet. This manuscript marks his first major undertaking: it reveals his sensitivity, joie de vivre, irony, nostalgia, and humor, as well as the literary and historical culture that would later nourish his songs. Considered lost by Trenet himself, Les Rois fainéants was long the “Arlésienne” of his work. Rediscovered by Vincent Lisita, art historian and specialist in Le Fou chantant, already the author of two books and director of the chronological complete works at Frémeaux, this historical novel is published here for the first time.

The edition is accompanied by an introduction and biography of Charles Trenet written by Vincent Lisita. This early novel is not just the work of an apprentice writer: it is the literary birth certificate of the man who would revolutionize French song.
Patrick Frémeaux

366 PAGES