Frédéric Richaud
Das Mädchen illustrator

Monstres

Monsters

October 6, 2022

Novel

208 pages

140 × 200 mm

978-2-2600-5545-7

The Louvre, 1655. Catherine Beauvais, known as Cateau la borgnesse, walks her incongruous deformity through the corridors of the most beautiful palace in the world. Her presence is as annoying as the trust that Anne of Austria shows her.
Catherine had a unique knowledge of plants, stomachs and clysters. This science, combined with an uncommon intelligence and sensitivity, allowed her to make her way to the posterior of Her Majesty the Queen, a glutton who stuffs herself daily with sausages, chops and boiled bread.
How to make a place for yourself at the Court, this cenacle that swears by the beauty of forms, when you are a creature from a modest background, used to inspiring disgust and detestation?
A dive into the realm of appearances, where the monsters are not those we think.

the authors

Frédéric Richaud is a French novelist and comic book writer. Son of a painter father and a pianist mother, he spent part of his schooling at the Lycée Saint-Joseph in Carpentras. Now living in Paris, he devotes himself to writing novels, biographies and comic book scripts.

Das Mädchen is a graphic designer and illustrator. Very influenced by mythology, tales and the imaginary, she develops a dreamlike and offbeat style, sometimes tinged with irony. The plant world but also chimeras, women and childhood have a special place in her illustrations, whether they are treated in a “traditional” pointillist style or in a more pop and colorful vein.
Das Mädchen collaborates regularly with the editions Matin Calme (30 Ways to Kill Your Husband, The 4 Investigators of Gwangseon’ mini-market) as well as with the editions Julliard (Monstres) and Calmann-Lévy (Les rêveurs définitifs).

The edition

Cover illustrated by Das Mädchen.