Raphaël Pathé HéritageBook One · A Pathé Family Saga
The Night of Two Centuries
A comic, extravagant and magical historical novel about the birth of French cinema, written by a direct descendant of the Pathé family.
By Raphaël Pathé
Discover the launch programme ↓ Read an excerpt ↗New Year's Eve, 1899
One night. Two centuries.
The Pathé brothers cross the Atlantic to film an imperial ball in New York. At midnight, a gas fills the ballroom, and every guest falls into the same dream: a masked rave in Strasbourg, on New Year's Eve 1994.
They wake on the first morning of 1900, robbed of every jewel. Nobody can explain what they saw. But a little silver star, smelling of strawberries, lies on the ballroom floor.
From Charles Pathé's return from Argentina to the dawn of the new century, the novel blends family history, early cinema, extravagant characters and a touch of the supernatural.
The family behind the fiction
A story shaped by family memory
Raphaël Pathé descends directly from Jacques Martin Pathé, one of the four brothers who founded Pathé. Charles Pathé was his great-great-uncle.
Raphaël knew his great-grandmother Marie-Louise Pathé as a child. Family stories and heirlooms helped inspire the novel, where a porcelain rooster becomes a message passed from one century to the next.
The Night of Two Centuries is historical fiction: real people and family stories sit alongside invented characters, and history is bent for the pleasure of the story.
The novel's world
Paris, New York and Strasbourg
From the Pathé delicatessen in Vincennes and Maxim's in Paris to snowy New York at Christmas 1899, the story moves between family history and a world of spectacle.
Its characters include Charles, Jacques, Émile and Théophile Pathé; Madame Victoire Fouquet de la Varenne; Isabelle François; Isidor and Ida Straus; Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria; and Rapha, a young go-go dancer at a Strasbourg rave in 1994.
Read an excerpt · Chapter One
A first glimpse of the novel
The following day in the early morning, a corpulent middle aged lady enters the Pathé delicatessen located at seventy seven, rue du Midi. She is wrapped in a long luxurious green cashmere wool coat, standing on a pair of very high heels ankle boots. A golden fox brought back from last hunting season in Sologne sleeps peacefully on her shoulders. Her round face is crowned with the magnificent maison Poiret season's signature : a hat sprinkled with blue, turquoise and gold rhinestones, topped with a million peacock feathers.
A cultural programme in development
From the page to the stage
Association Raphaël Pathé Héritage is developing an international launch programme for The Night of Two Centuries, bringing the novel to libraries, cultural venues and special events.
Raphaël Pathé would take part as the author and speaker, with readings and conversations about the book, family history and the beginnings of cinema. Each event could be shaped with its host venue and local audience.
Events could include
- Author talks and public readings in libraries and cultural spaces
- Special launch evenings with music, film and conversation
- Discussions about the Pathé family and early cinema
- Recorded conversations to reach audiences beyond the room
Host or support a date
Libraries, festivals, cultural organisations and patrons are invited to discuss hosting or supporting an event. Countries, dates, venues and partners are not yet confirmed.
Discuss hosting an event ↗Publication
The manuscript is in its final reread.
Raphaël has completed the manuscript and is now rereading it before publication.
Planned editions: Kindle ebook, hardcover and audiobook. A publication date will be announced when confirmed.
The saga
Book One
The Night of Two Centuries opens A Pathé Family Saga, a story that follows the family through the end of the Belle Époque and into the twentieth century.
Help bring the programme to audiences
Support the launch events
Patrons and partners can help the Association develop a public programme around the novel. Support may contribute to agreed costs such as venues, event production, travel, accessibility and recording.
The Association is developing and seeking support for the public launch events. The book will be published and sold by Trillionway Productions.
Discuss supporting the programme ↗ See the Association's projects ↗