The Midnight Love Feast (fr|'''Le Médianoche amoureux''') is a 1989 book by Michel Tournier, published by Éditions Gallimard.
It was translated into English by Barbara Wright. It was published in the United Kingdom by William Collins, Sons in 1991.[1]
The work starts with a segment about Yves, a man who works in the fishery trade, and Nadège, a woman who is married to Yves. They hold a dinner party where guests trade stories, 19 in all, about romance.[1]
The book has references to other creators of literature.[1]
The English version partially abridges one of the stories, "Lucie", by five pages.[2]
Judy Cooke of The Guardian praised the "clarity", wrote that the translation was "excellent", and stated that the book "works at many levels".[1]
Galen Strawson, in The Independent, wrote that the work has "second-rate" content though Tournier's "gifts show through."[2]
Helen Elliott of The Age praised the "literary inventiveness" and that the translation was well done.[3]
A. P. Riemer, a Sydney University associate professor teaching English courses, criticized the censorship in the English translation.[4] He stated that some of the later stories had difficulty in translation due to differences between French and English, though that the translator was "competent and conscientious".[4]
James Saynor in The Observer wrote that the translation was of good quality, and favorably compared his work to those of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Primo Levi.[5]