First edition, rare, published in the Complete Works of George Sand by Bonnaire. The half-title indicates volume XXIV.
Modern half black straight-grained morocco binding with small corners signed René Aussourd at the top of the endpaper. Jansenist spine with raised bands. Title, author and date gilt. Covers preserved. Upper right corner of the front cover lacking (0.5cm). Light rubbing to boards. Very handsome copy with perfectly fresh uncut paper.
Ex libris Paola Sanjust.
Dialogue novel featuring a young Italian noblewoman during the Renaissance, raised as a man for succession reasons. Gabriel will be confronted with the hypocrisy of society and rebels against the abyssal difference between the rights granted to men and the oppression reserved for women. The author analyzes with irony the differences in education between girls and boys. Balzac, enthusiastic upon reading the work, did not hesitate to compare it to a Shakespeare play.
First edition of the French translation, one of 20 numbered copies on pur fil paper, ours one of the few hors commerce, a deluxe issue. Endpapers lightly and entirely toned. A fine copy with full margins.
Superb original photographic portrait of Ravachol taken by Alphonse Bertillon, contemporary print on albumen mounted on bristol board.
Extremely rare handwritten caption signed by the most famous of the French anarchists, written in his hesitant and naive handwriting, at the bottom of the photo: “1er mai 1892 Koningstein [sic] Ravachol” “1st May 1892 Koningstein [sic] Ravachol”.
The spelling Koningstein chosen by Ravachol differs from his father's surname (Königstein). This variation confirmed by the Maintron (Biographical dictionary of the social and labour movement) is found in particular in a piece of his writing by hand dated 13 April 1892 and kept at the Conciergerie.
“ Un certain Varinard des Cotes a tracé son portrait graphologique. Il crut pouvoir noter l'absence d'orgueil et de vanité, la droiture et la loyauté des convictions” “A certain Varinard des Cotes drew his graphological portrait. He believed he could note the absence of pride and vanity, the righteousness and loyalty of convictions”. (Ramonet et Chao, Guide du Paris rebelle, 2008).
We have not been able to find any other copy of this photograph in international public collections or on sale at auction. Autographs of the “Christ de l'anarchie” “Christ of anarchy” are extremely rare. We know only of this unique, signed photograph of Ravachol with the exception of the one mentioned in the Conciergerie surveillance reports: “Le nommé Ravachol nous a fait voir sa photographie sur le recto de laquelle il a inscrit ces mots : « à tous ceux que j'ai aimé. Mon cœur sera toujours près de vous, ma dernière pensée sera pour vous. Tous mes baisers” “The named Ravachol showed us his photograph on the front of which he wrote these words: “To all those whom I have loved. My heart will always be near you, my last thought will be for you. All my love”. Signed Ravachol. He intended to send this photograph to his brother, along with a letter summarised as follows: “Comme vous le voyez, je suis souriant sur ma photographie, vous pourrez donc en déduire que mon sort n'est pas si triste que vous le pensez. Il ne me manque qu'une chose : la liberté. Du reste je ne fais aucune différence entre ma vie en prison et celle que je menais auparavant. Toutes les deux ne sont que souffrance. Le vrai bonheur n'existera pour moi que lorsque je verrai la réalisation de mes projets, si cela ne se peut, je préfère la mort. J'envisage ces deux points le sourire aux lèvres .” “As you can see, I am smiling in my photograph, so you can assume that my fate is not as sad as you might think. I miss only one thing: freedom. Otherwise, I notice no difference between my life in prison and the one I led before. Both know only suffering. True happiness will only exist for me when I see my projects realised, if that is not possible, I prefer death. I consider these two points with a smile on my lips”. (8 May 1892). We were un able to identify this photo and have found no other trace of it since this report. For that matter, we are not certain that this photograph still exists. Like ours, it was taken during a sitting at the Conciergerie prison on 6 May 1892 during which several poses were taken. Therefore, Ravachol backdated his dedication by probably using the symbolic date 1st May 1892, the first anniversary of the Fourmies massacre.
Mention is certainly made of our photo in the memoires of the photographer and father of anthropometry, Alphonse Bertillon: “Ce fut l'identification de l'anarchiste Ravachol qui consacra la sûreté de sa méthode. Ravachol avait fait sauter au moyen d'une bombe l'immeuble où habitait alors le procureur de la République ainsi que le restaurant Véry et menaçait de continuer cette besogne de destruction quand il fut arrêté au milieu d'une foule hurlante qui voulait le mettre en pièces, au point qu'il arriva au service anthropométrique avec un visage boursouflé, tuméfié, hideux. Il fallut toute la diplomatie, toute la pénétration psychologique d'Alphonse Bertillon pour le convaincre de se laisser mensurer et photographier. Ravachol exprima le désir, vu l'état effrayant de son visage, d'être photographié une seconde fois dès que ses plaies et ses ecchymoses seraient guéries. Bertillon le lui promit et tint parole, il poussa même la délicatesse vis-à-vis de ce bandit jusqu'à lui porter dans la cellule qu'il occupait au dépôt un exemplaire de son portrait collé sur bristol. Et Ravachol qui ne pouvait en croire ses yeux, de s'écrier : – vous êtes un honnête homme, vous au moins, monsieur Bertillon.” “It was the identification of the anarchist Ravachol who established the reliability of his method. Ravachol had blown up the building with a bomb where the public prosecutor was living at the time, as well it housing the Véry Restaurant, and he threatened to continue this destruction work when he was arrested in the middle of a screaming crowd who wanted him in pieces, so much so that he arrived at the anthropometric service with a puffed up, swollen, unsightly face. It required all Alphonse Bertillon's diplomacy, all his psychological penetration, to convince him to let himself be measured and photographed. Ravachol expressed a desire, given the frightening state of his face, to be photographed a second time as soon as his wounds and his bruises were healed. Bertillon promised him and kept his word, he even showed gentleness towards this bandit so far as to bring him in his cell a copy of his portrait mounted on bristol board. And Ravachol, who could not believe his eyes, exclaimed: – you are an honest man, you at least, Monsieur Bertillon.” (Suzanne Bertillon, Vie d'Alphonse Bertillon l'inventeur de l'anthropométrie, 1941). This highly accurate testimony sheds light on the significance of Ravachol's arrest in the famous criminologist's career and the particular relationship linking the two men. It must be said that it was Bertillon himself who proceeded to identify the activist who had been “bertillonné” (captured by Bertillon) two years earlier, demonstrating the efficacy of his classification method with vigour: this first record was among 500,000 others, already carried out since the creation of the Judicial Identification Service in 1889.
We do not know to whom Ravachol intended this portrait that he so carefully considered, but the absence of a dedicatee and the highly symbolic date he affixed to it, the ultimate challenge to the police state, suggests that he offered it to a supporter of his cause.
An extremely rare contemporary print of the anarchist icon Ravachol, whose name – immortalised in popular culture – will even become a common name, from one of Captain Haddock's insults (“ Mille millions de mille milliards de mille sabords !...Espèce de cannibale ! ... Bachi-bouzouk ! ... Ravachol !...” “A thousand millions of a thousand billions of a thousand portholes!...You cannibal!... Bachi-bouzouk!... Ravachol!...”) to a Bérurier Noir punk litany: “Salut à toi l'Espagnol / Salut à toi le Ravachol !” “Hi to you Spaniard / Hi to you Ravachol!”.
First French edition, translated by William Hugues, under the direction of P. Lorrain.
Contemporary half red shagreen binding. Spine with raised bands decorated with 3 fleurons. Gilt titles and volume labels. Light traces of rubbing. Very fresh set, free from foxing except for some pale browning on the first text page of volume 1.
A work of great darkness, Little Dorrit is the second of Dickens's three political and social novels. It is a denunciation of Victorian society obsessed with wealth and power. G. B. Shaw would judge the novel "More seditious than Karl Marx's Capital". The novel begins in Marseille. One of Dickens's great works.
Third edition after the original published in Bordeaux in 1593 and a second Parisian edition in 1594. The copy mentions the second edition because it is the second to be published in Bordeaux.
Extremely rare handwritten presentation signed by the author on the page of the endpaper: “Pour Monsieur de Rives en memoire de moy. A Caors ce iiij [4] may 1595. Charron.” “For Monseiur de Rives in memory of me. In Caors this iiij [4] May 1595. Charron.” It is, without doubt, about Jean III de Rieu, Lord of Rives, who belonged to the family of Antoine Hébrard de Saint-Sulpice, bishop of Cahors. Pierre Charron had been called theological by this same bishop of Cahors and became his curate for six years.
Bound in calf vellum with contemporary yapp edges, blank spine.
Extensive yellowing of the endpaper page until page 30, then lessening, in the middle of the page throughout the first part and until page 120 of the second part. This yellowing resumes from page 760 until the end.
Pierre Charron's first writing, who, in this controversial work regarding Protestantism, develops three great “vérités” “truths”: religion is necessary, Christianity is revealed and only the Roman Church is the true Church. It is this last point in particular that the author tries to demonstrate. This third part is so important that it has its own title page and takes up two-thirds of the book.
In Bordeaux, Pierre Charron met Montaigne whose ideas spread through his works and his thoughts. They bonded with such a deep friendship that Montaigne designated Charron as heir to his house coat of arms.
The handwritten ex-donos or presentations of the great humanists of the 16th century are an exceptional rarity.
