Giovanni's Room

£55

Illustrated By Lela Harris

Introduced By Hilton Als

James Baldwin’s tender, fearless novel of love, shame and longing is a defining work of modern literature. With intimate charcoal portraits from Lela Harris, this Folio captures every aching heartbeat of this timeless story

Giovanni's Room

£55

Book Details

Presentation Box & BindingQuarter-bound in blocked cloth with printed paper sidesPrinted slipcase

Dimensions8¾˝ x 5½˝

FontSet in Garamond with Octavian as display

Pages192 pages

AuthorJames Baldwin

Illustrated ByLela Harris

IllustrationFrontispiece and 5 illustrations including one double-page spread

Publication Date3 June 2025

PrintingFirst Printing

Editor's Notes

First published almost 70 years ago, Giovanni's Room is a literary masterpiece and an essential work of queer fiction. It is by turns deeply moving, bitterly heartbreaking and formative. In this Folio edition, an introduction by the erudite writer and critic Hilton Als sheds light on the novel's themes and its characters, its flaws and its beauty – and the life and mind of the author behind it. The story of David and Giovanni is rendered in intimate and expressive charcoal illustrations by the artist Lela Harris. A study of Paris by night, tender portraits and a dining room still life – newspapers, wine bottles and all – capture the essence of this modern classic.

Synopsis

David has always known the life he’s supposed to want – a respectable future, a woman by his side. But in the shadowed bars and winding streets of 1950s Paris, he meets Giovanni, a barman with a restless spirit and a room that becomes their entire world. As desire ignites, so does David’s fear – of himself, of love, of a truth he cannot escape. Baldwin’s haunting novel is a story of longing and loss, of the devastating cost of denying who we are, and of a love consumed by the fear of being truly seen.

About the Introducer

Hilton Als is a Pulitzer Prize-winning staff writer and theatre critic for the New Yorker. He has curated numerous exhibitions, teaches at Berkeley and Columbia universities, and is a former staff writer for the Village Voice as well as a contributor to many other publications, including the New York Review of Books. Als’s own books include White Girls (which was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award) (2013) and, most recently, My Pinup: A Paean to Prince (2022). Long associated with Joan Didion, he curated the Didion exhibition at the Hammer Museum in LA and has written extensively about her.

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