Guy de MAUPASSANT

Handwritten, signed letter in an envelope addressed to the Countess Potocka. Maupassant on England: “J'en ai eu plein les yeux ; mais j'en aurais plein le dos si je les avais entendus.” “I had an eyeful; but I would have been sick and tired if I had understood them.”

Aylesbury, England 10 August 1886, 10.1 x 15.3 cm, 4 pages on a double sheet

Amusing handwritten letter signed by Guy de Maupassant to the Countess Potocka, 76 lines in black ink on a double sheet with the Waddesdon, Aylesbury letterhead. Envelope attached.

Published in Marlo Johnston, “Lettres inédites de Maupassant à la comtesse Potocka”, Histoires littéraires, n°40, October-November-December 2009.

Maupaussant travelled a lot throughout his life: Algeria, Tunisia, Italy, England... At the time of this letter, he was in Aylesbury in England, a guest at Baron de Rothschild's Waddesdon manor. On 7 August he organised an exceptional party which brought together three hundred distinguished guests. Contradictory when one knows the force with which Maupassant denied being sociable. In describing his activities to the Countess, he paints an acid portrait of English society.

He apologises to the Countess for this prolonged absence: “Oui, Madame, je suis resté en Angleterre un peu plus que je n'avais pensé le faire. Je n'ai pu d'abord résister aux instances du baron de Rothschild qui prétendait me retenir un mois ; et puis cette vie nouvelle m'a parue curieuse à beaucoup d'égards, bien que triste.” “ Yes, Ma'am, I stayed in England for a little longer than I thought I would. At first, I could not resist the demands of the Baron de Rothschild who claimed to keep me for a month; and then this new life seemed curious to me in many respects, although sad.” The country was only moderately to his liking but he found a way to adapt to it: “C'est triste ici, mais reposant et je goûte un plaisir bizarre, un vrai plaisir solitaire à me trouver au milieu de gens qui ne m'entendent pas et que je ne comprends point.” “It is sad here, but relaxing and I taste a strange pleasure, a real solitary pleasure in finding myself in the midst of people who cannot hear me and whom I do not understand.” He took the opportunity to deduce a travel rule with which Des Esseintes would have agreed if he had actually set foot on English soil: “Si j'avais un conseil à donner aux jeunes hommes, ce serait celui-ci : “N'apprenez jamais les langues étrangères et voyagez souvent à l'étranger.” Il n'y a rien de plus agréable que de regarder les gens causer, rire, mimer ce qu'ils disent sans avoir la fatigue inutile de suivre, de comprendre ce qu'ils pensent, et celle, plus grande, de leur répondre. $” “If I had one piece of advice to give to young men, it would be this: “Never learn foreign languages and travel abroad often.” There is nothing more pleasant than to watch people chat, laugh, mime what they are saying without having the unnecessary fatigue of following, of understanding what they are thinking, and the greater fatigue of answering them.”
Maupassant talks of the English at their expense: “Je me sens en sûreté au milieu de ces êtres-là, tranquille comme s'ils étaient en cage, et quand ils essayent, par politesse (car ils sont très polis) de baragouiner quelques mots de français je leur fais répéter vingt fois chaque phrase, en feignant de ne point comprendre, pour leur ôter tout désir de recommencer.” “I feel safe in the midst of these beings, calm as if they were in a cage, and when they try, out of politeness (because they are very polite) to speak badly a few words of French I make them repeat each phrase twenty times, pretending not to understand, to rid them of any desire to start again.” Even the highest social classes are not spared of his dark humour: “J'ai passé deux jours avec l'archevêque de Canterbury à qui on m'a présenté comme un égyptologue pour ne point alarmer sa conscience sacerdotale.” “I spent two days with the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was introduced to me as an Egyptologist so as not to alarm his priestly conscience.” Neither royalty or the people are found to be graceful in Mauspassant's eyes: “Je viens de passer trois jours (suprême honneur) sous le même toit que l'héritier du trône (au 2nd degré) qui me fait l'effet d'un superbe échantillon d'un crétinisme auquel aboutissent les races royales. J'ai vu des lords, des généraux, des ambassadeurs, des ministres, toute la ménagerie humaine de ce pays.” “I have just spent three days (supreme honour) under the same roof as the heir to the throne (2nd in line) which makes me the effect of a superb sample of stupidity to which the royal breeds succeed. I saw Lords, Generals, ambassadors, ministers, all the human menagerie of this country.” Even women are not spared, and Maupassant uses their description as an opportunity to complement the Countess: “Point de jolies femmes. Elles sont assez fraîches mais sans grâce, sans élégance, sans piment. Sans vouloir vous faire un compliment vous êtes infiniment plus belle que les plus belles personnes montrées ici. Et pourtant j'aime assez les blondes - qui tiennent ce que promettent les brunes - à ce qu'on dit - et c'est vrai.” “No pretty women. They are quite fresh but without grace, without elegance, without life. Without wishing to compliment you, you are infinitely more beautiful than the most beautiful women shown here. And yet I quite like blondes - who hold what brunettes promise - by all accounts - and it is true.” It is interesting to note that the Countess was of Mediterranean origin (born Emmanuella Pignatelli di Cerchiara) and therefore had brown hair.

While he spent time with the best society, visited the town of Oxford and despite the charm of the English countryside, Maupassant definitely found no grace in this country. He leaves without regret, leaving only a terse telegram to one of his fellow travellers: “J'ai trop froid, cette ville est trop froide. Je la quitte pour Paris ; au revoir, mille remerciements.” “I am too cold; this town is too cold. I am leaving for Paris; goodbye, a thousand thanks.” To summarise the experience of his stay for the Countess, he concludes his missive with an irrevocable sentence for the English nation: “J'en ai eu plein les yeux ; mais j'en aurais plein le dos si je les avais entendus.” “I had an eyeful; but I would have been sick and tired if I had understood them.”

Provenance: Jean Bonna's collection.

"I do not say I loved you - but that I was touched, as others, by your power"
An exceptional autograph letter signed by Guy de Maupassant, 123 lines in black ink on two sheets. With an envelope addressed to the Countess at 14 bis rue Chateaubriand.
This remarkable missive, probably unpublished, summarizes Maupassant's years of waiting and suffering in his love for the Countess Potocka. The writer finally lays his cards bare in a last and bitter confessional letter and reveals the desperate inner struggles that he faced since his meeting with this woman of irresistible charms.
This confession, put off by Maupassant for a long time, who until then contented himself with civilities and a few discreet intimations in his correspondence, reveals the writer's passionate feelings for Countess Potocka. The seductive writer, famous for his numerous female conquests, this time suffers under the power of his friend; these painful and liberating lines are the sole and sublime witness of a burning passion that the writer had hidden since their meeting at the Countess' salon, and that he finally brings into the open. "I've never felt for a woman right from the start as I felt for you."
Emmanuela Pignatelli di Cergharia was the wife of the extremely rich Polish count Nicolas Potocki, who allowed her a great deal of freedom. Her Parisian salon in the avenue Friedland was, from 1882 onwards, the exclusive meeting place for an elite composed of writers, socialites and literary types, and was host, each Friday, to a council of suitors "dying of love", ironically nicknamed the "Maccabees". Visitors included Egérie de Guerlain, who made a perfume for her called Shore's caprice and the writers of Paris high society; but she was first and foremost an inspiration to Maupassant, who modeled the character of Christiane Andermatt in Mont-Oriol after her, as well as Michèle de Burne in Notre cœur. Their splendid correspondence ran for several years, until Maupassant's commitment. At the time this letter was written, on the 11 March 1889, the Countess was still holding her salon at her mother's house in the rue de Chateaubriand. Maupassant had been a faithful attendee of her evenings for a number of years, as Proust noted in a column in the Figaro in 1904: "Maupassant went to hers every day". He was even ironically elevated to the rank of "Permanent Secretary of the Standing Council of the Maccabees' Club."
Maupassan't passionate confession starts in an eminently dramatic tone ("I will confess something to you which I am perhaps the only man capable of confessing"). Here, it is a question for Maupassant above all of marking himself out from the crowd of suitors in the same position as him, for whom the Countess reserved equal treatment: a "dominating influence" that was unbearable for the free spirit of the writer, who congratulates himself on being "distrustful, highly dissimulating, very observant and very much master of [himself]". Forewarned right from the start of the cruel merry-go-round on which she led her circle of suitors, he tells her: "I heard many bad things about you...I was even more suspicious and more doubtful, so much so that I fell terribly for your charm. " The author abandons himself to a bitter confession and admits defeat before the Countess' cunning charm.
The question of honesty seems to be a leitmotiv very dear to Maupassant all throughout the letter. The Countess and he move in worldly spheres (the writer organized several dinners in Paris and in the countryside) and their relationship mixed love and friendship right from the start, in a subliminal game of seduction. The Countess thus seems to doubt her friend's sincerity. "You pretend not to understand me, you think that I have always thought of you as someone nasty". He replies : "You say that I'm not frank with you, but if that's so, then the Eiffel tower isn't made of iron ". This mention of the tower recalls Maupassant's vehement opposition to its erection (inaugurated on the 30 March of that same year), against which he had signed a petition. Maupassant reveals in these lines the duplicitous nature of their relationship and the Countess' numerous prejudices, refusing to recognize the signs of a nascent love: "Do not think that one is in love the way one becomes kind or angry. No. Love grows on you, according to its nature. You have always denied this absolute truth."
Maupassant contrasts to his devouring passion for the Countess Potocka his reason and his "egotism". "In Auvergne I should have been in love with you. Maybe I even was. But I overcame that...I have the ability to control myself by reasoning, pushed to its extreme. After real inner failures, I always ended up coming back to you." The author's Cartesian soul enters into a real struggle with the ardor of his feelings , but the style of this extraordinary letter betrays his torment. The abrupt sentences and the eruptions of his passionate love are totally different from his friendly correspondence with the Countess, and endow the letter with a key importance in terms of their relationship. These lines are the culmination of a passion that he chose to reject before giving in to it after all. He finishes his letter on this grave and outstanding line: "You can stop at the edge of a hill if you have a fear of heights and if you turn back in time; but if you run down it, then all is lost. I had a fear of heights, and I was afraid."
A sublime testimony to Maupassant's great passion for the fascinating Countess Potocka, who had charmed turn of the century literary and society Paris.

Autographed letter-card from Guy de Maupassant to the Countess Potocka, 16 lines in black ink on a letterhead "GM 83, rue Dulong", envelope attached.
Maupassant replied to his correspondent that he was trying to see: " Yes, certainly, madam, I was even going to go there, always about five o'clock, for Madame Pasca told me that you never came home sooner. Alix-Marie Pasquier, known as Madame Pasca, was a member of the Comedie Francaise, a very close friend of Maupassant and close to Flaubert, accustomed to the Countess Potocka's salon.
Further on, he recalled his recurring boredom: " I warn you that the Reverend Father is not in vain of gaiety. I am bored in an abominable, unbelievable way. Shortly before the writing of this letter (around September-October 1880), Maupassant had traveled to Corsica where he went to see Father Didon, whom he had met via Flaubert. Ecclesiastical mundane, the religious had just been exiled in Corsica for his positions too free. He is famous for having created the new motto of the Olympic Games during his collaboration with Pierre de Coubertin: " Citius, Altius, Fortius (" Faster, Higher, Stronger ") .
This boredom is a recurring feeling in Maupassant. His brilliant mind, overwhelmed by illness, finds, nevertheless, some pleasures: "At last I shall not be bored for an hour now, and that is a great deal. He concludes: " I begin to compliment! It's serious ! "

Signed autograph letter from Guy de Maupassant to the Countess Potocka, 26 lines in black ink on a letterhead "GM 83, rue Dulong", envelope attached.
Maupassant was sorry that he could not see his friend the Countess: " Alas, Madame, you despair me! I just signed up for tonight! And I can not now make myself free. He would like to: "... well see you a minute before you leave ." "The author was indeed often on the move whether it was for health or visits. In order to greet the Countess, he proposes: " If the Count has returned to-morrow, can I not ask you to come and have lunch with him in some cabaret?" Count Potocki was the husband of the Countess Potocka. Of Polish origin, he became naturalized French in 1905. He and the Countess lived on their own but in good agreement.
Thus: " It would be a farewell breakfast that we would try to make as cheerful as possible! That is why he asks the Countess: " To animate this lunch, we can invite one of your friends." Maupassant was afraid that this separation might be too painful for the Comtesse: " I fear that the return will make you morose. He finished his letter by thanking her, " Thank you for the medal." I am, madam, your most devoted friend . "

20 lines autographs and signed by Maupassant in black ink on a letter-card with a letterhead "GM 10, rue de Montchanin" to the countess who beats cold.
Maupassant appears in the grip of doubt as to the feelings of the Countess towards him: " Is it dangerous to go and see you? I confess that I am afraid. On my return from Antibes, you have felt a terrifying coldness towards me. "
The Countess treated Maupassant in the same way as his other "Maccabees." A kind of courtyard of lovers, on which she had all power. Potocka held Maupassant in awe: " I have concluded that I should do well not to tire you. He grieves: " And then, meeting you the other night, I did not have to see what you thought. "
Destitute, he humbly asks: "... I will, quite simply, and frankly ask you. What should be done ? If I bore you, do not answer me, for I should not bore you at all. To finish, he asks the Countess: " Do not forget that I am, from near or far, a very devoted friend, although you think of me ."

Guy de Maupassant
Signed autograph letter and envelope addressed to the Countess Potocka: "And that, madame, is not of the pose, in prose. "
Sl [Paris] sd [12 February 1886], 9.8x 15.5cm, 5 pages on 3 sheets.
Funny and moving letter both literary and amorous.
Maupassant, at Antibes on the occasion of a marriage, addressed an astonishing letter to the Countess Potocka. She is at the same time her friend and a woman whom he courtiers by taste or worldliness. For her part, she quickly incorporated him into his group of "Maccabees," a circle of suitors over whom she reigned as an absolute mistress.
He grew up with Potocka for his kindness towards a new one recently published, Mademoiselle Perle : "I have been a long time, Madame, without writing to you because you have revolted me - literally - by congratulating me on Mademoiselle Perle , I am sure. He feels perfectly entitled to criticize his work: " I have the right to be severe given the author's name ..."
He suspects the Countess's male entourage to influence his judgment: " Certainly you have been influenced by the considerable and incompetent men whom you honor with your confidence for having thus appreciated this news worthy of a Mointhyon prize (I do not even know Not how one writes Montyon) as much by the form as the bottom. Maupassant resumed his previous procedure: he was at a distance from a group of which he was a part. It is also the salons of the Countess, it does not differ in any way from the " considerable men " whom he cites. The Montyon prize, which he claims he can not spell, is a literary reward for works "most useful to manners".
He confesses, however, a few lines later: " I wanted to prove that everyone confuses literature with Virtue - whereas they have nothing in common. "A business that can be called moral. But Maupassant's morality yielded to the writing: " Well, after this disloyal essay I opt for literature . "
Mademoiselle Perle was published barely a month earlier, on January 16, 1886 in Le Figaro . In spite of everything, he launched himself into a lapidary and funny criticism of his text, without failing to scratch his correspondent on the passage: " How could you judge with sympathy the story as banal as unlikely of this family of imbeciles living Behind the Observatory as at the bottom of the province - (Like it's new ) [...] Oh! Oh ! Oh ! Ah! Ah! Ah! What an ingenious fable! And the revelation takes place in a charming way, about a cake of kings! One weeps in a chalk, which is a comic on, and the other grateful, falls to the ground like a scarf, which is of a certain effect! He seems to find no grace in his work, in spite of his success: " Certainly the invention of this fabliau at Berquin is of a certain platitude, the observation of a perfect inaccuracy, the development of a tender naivete which Has touched everybody. For I have received many letters. "
What mattered success, for according to Maupassant, the danger is quite different: " I say that in writing such virtuous sweets without finds of any kind, without an artist's composition and even without a feathered address one arrives perhaps ... 'academy. But that's all, and not enough. He apologizes for the difficulty: " This is how I am cranky in my solitude where life is not gay. I work ; I work a lot ; My eyes ache, my stomach ache, my back pain; And my heart beats day and night. He reproaches his correspondent for the ways in which she uses him, as well as with his other followers of the group of "Maccabees." He thinks "... very often, with a certain sadness to a woman of whom I would really like to be, sincerely the friend, but whose kindness towards me is so variable that the friendship with her has a dancer's balance on The tightrope. "
But he avenged himself a few lines later, evoking his visits to his friends Marie Kann and Mme Legrand (Marie-Clothilde Legrand, Countess of Fournès) and then his friend the painter Henri Gervex: " that Mme Legrand wears Duke Duke of Prince In Prince, is becoming, with the aid of his hostess who thinks him delighted, a regicide communard, although he has been made to pass in this world for a practicing Catholic. Finally, after his some humorous features, he resumes his somber attitude, markedly aggravated during his last years, which he still has to live: " I do not go out, only in black and I am so bored, at the sole thought of everything What I could do to amuse myself, that I have not even the courage to move. "

First edition.
Bradel binding.
Autograph inscription signed by Guy de Maupassant to journalist Fernand de Rodays.
A nice copy elegantly bound.

First edition on ordinary paper.
Paper Bradel binding with floral motifs and red shagreen title-piece, covers preserved, top edge gilt.
A very good copy.

First edition on ordinary paper.
Contemporary half brown cloth Bradel binding over marbled paper boards, double fillet and gilt date to foot of spine, red shagreen title-label, covers mounted on guards and preserved, ex libris of Léon Hennique by Léon Glaize (engraved by E. Dété) on the front endpaper.
Handsome autograph inscription signed by Guy de Maupassant : "A Léon Hennique, son ami [For Léon Hennique, his friend]".
A very good copy in an attractive contemporary binding made for Léon Hennique.

New edition with 11 original etchings in color by Marcel Cosson, one of 10 numbered copies on old Japan paper, the tirage de tête.
This copy, as stipulated on the justification page, retains its black and white suite en noir of the etchings, a suite in two colors and an original signed drawing by Marcel Cosson in biro.
Some small tears to the spine of the chemise.
A good copy.

First edition. Half black morocco over marbled paper boards by P. Goy & C. Vilaine, spine in six compartments, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, covers preserved, top edge gilt.
Autograph inscription from Guy de Maupassant to Monsieur Regnoul.
With illustrations by Gaston Riou.

First edition, one of 200 numbered copies on Hollande paper, the only large paper copies.
Contemporary half pink morocco over marbled paper boards by Bretault, spine in six compartments (very lightly faded), bands framed with gilt spots, double gilt frames with gilt floral motifs, brown morocco onlay to petals, green morocco title-piece, author's name on blue-green morocco label, gilt date at foot of spine, gilt fillet frame to covers, marbled pastedowns and endpapers, one corner rubbed, covers preserved, top edge gilt.
A rare copy of Guy de Maupassant's masterpiece, in a perfectly matched elegant contemporary binding.

First edition, one of 50 numbered copies on Holland paper, only leading copies.
Binding in the bradel half morocco black corners, smooth back, golden date tail, guards and contreplats of handmade paper, covers and backs preserved, binding signed Alfred Farez, active between 1909 and 1930.
Very nice copy at all margins perfectly established.

First edition, preface by Guy de Maupassant.
Contemporary brown cloth, spine with blindstamped fleuron, orange morocco title label, joints restored.
Handsome autograph inscription signed by René Maizeroy to the writer of the preface, Guy de Maupassant.
Frontispiece etching by Kauffmann. Spotting. René Maizeroy was the pseudonym of the Baron René-Jean Toussaint, on whom Guy de Maupassant based the character of Duroy in the novel Bel-Ami.
Provenance : Guy de Maupassant.

First edition, one of 40 numbered copies on Hollande paper, the only deluxe issue (grands papiers).
Elegant purple half morocco binding by Goy & Vilaine, marbled paper boards, spine with six raised bands, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, covers and spine preserved, top edge gilt.
Endpapers uniformly faded.
A good and rare copy in a handsome binding.

Later edition, first for some parts as revised, one of 50 numbered copies on Hollande paper, the only large paper copies alongside five on Japan.
Half brown morocco over marbled paper boards, spine in six compartments with gilt friezes and gilt typographic motifs, gilt friezes to head and foot of spine, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, covers preserved, top edge gilt. Guards partly faded.
A very good, well-margined copy in a nice binding.
Provenance : Paul Ollendorff.

First edition, one of 100 numbered copies on Hollande paper, the only large paper copies after 5 on China and 10 on Japan.
Contemporary half light green morocco (unsigned but attributable to Lancelin) over marbled paper boards, spine in six compartments (sunned), gilt date to foot, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, covers and spine preserved.
A nicely bound, well-margined, copy.
Provenance : collection of Paul Ollendorff.

First edition on ordinary paper; only 10 large paper copies on Hollande were produced.
Contemporary Bradel binding by Pierson of green paper over paper boards decorated with feather motifs, the spine (faded) with a gilt floral motif, gilt date and double gilt fillet to foot of spine, the spine with a vertical scratch to foot), dark blue shagreen title label.
Autograph inscription from Guy de Maupassant to Paul Bourde.
Occasional light spotting.