Abstract: The French publisher Payot who had offered Keynes in 1936 to translate a summary of his book, was asked in 1938 to publish the French translation of The General Theory. The translation was finished by June 1939 but it was published only in 1942. This delay comes first of all from difficulties related to the translation, which was closely supervised by Keynes and Sraffa, then from the political context marked by the German occupation of France from 1940.
