The Midnight Love Feast

The Midnight Love Feast (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.

Story
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.

The book has references to other creators of literature.

The English version partially abridges one of the stories, "Lucie", by five pages.

Reception
Judy Cooke of The Guardian praised the "clarity", wrote that the translation was "excellent", and stated that the book "works at many levels".

Galen Strawson, in The Independent, wrote that the work has "second-rate" content though Tournier's "gifts show through."

Helen Elliott of The Age praised the "literary inventiveness" and that the translation was well done.

A. P. Riemer, a Sydney University associate professor teaching English courses, criticized the censorship in the English translation. 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".

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.