''Welcome, Honourable Visitors'' () is a 1958 novel by the French writer Jean Raspail. It tells the story of six foreign tourists who travel in Japan and stay at an inn. It was Raspail's first novel, having previously published several travel books. It was first published as ''Le Vent des Pins'', which is the name of the inn in the story, but changed title when it was republished in 1970.

Publication

The novel was first published in 1958 by

éditions Julliard Éditions Julliard is a French publishing house. It was founded in 1942 by René Julliard. Julliard was known as a discoverer and publisher of talents, in particular Françoise Sagan and Jean d'Ormesson. After Julliard's death in July 1962, the ...

with the title ''Le Vent des Pins''. An English translation by Jean Stewart was published in 1960. In the United Kingdom it was published by

Hamish Hamilton Hamish Hamilton Limited was a British book publishing house, founded in 1931 eponymously by the half-Scot half-American Jamie Hamilton (''Hamish'' is the vocative form of the Gaelic Seumas eaning James ''James'' the English form – which was ...

as ''Welcome, Honourable Visitors'' and in the United States by

G. P. Putnam's Sons G. P. Putnam's Sons is an American book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group. History The company began as Wiley & Putnam with the 1838 partnership between George Palmer Putnam and J ...

as ''Welcome Honorable Visitors''. It was republished in French in 1970 as ''Bienvenue honorables visiteurs''.

Reception

John Coleman reviewed the book in '' The Spectator'': "M. Raspail is quite astute, works his expected ironies neatly enough, and would probably have made more money publishing the local colour bits as articles in '' Life''."

References

External links

''Le Vent des Pins''
at the author's website

at the author's website {{Jean Raspail 1958 French novels French-language novels Novels by Jean Raspail Novels set in Japan 1958 debut novels Japan in non-Japanese culture