Blaise Cendrars' (1887-1961) final novel from 1957 is an original and often very funny portrayal of the Parisian underworld of the late 1940s that crackles with the fires of an abundant imagination. The story races between Foreign Legion barracks in North Africa and the theatres, cafes, and police headquarters of post-war Paris. Therese is a bawdy actress -- once a rival of Sarah Bernhardt herself -- in her seventies enjoying an energetic affair with a young deserter from the Legion (in which Cendrars himself served). Disaster strikes when she is held for questioning following the murder of a local barman. With its bold and colorful supporting cast -- including black marketers, dubious aristocrats, sexual adventurers, and freaks -- entwined with numerous sub-plots and minor themes, To the End of the World amounts to a grand adventure. Like all of Cendrars' work -- including Moravagine and The Confessions of Dan Yack -- it has some basis in his own adventures and nomadic life: John Dos Passos once described Cendrars as "the Homer of the modern world." A Peter Owen Modern Classic.