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1952, The Old Man and The Sea – 1921, Martin Eden – 1942: The Stranger
1932: Journey to the End of the Night:
TRIPTYCH OF SOLITUDE AND A NIGHTTIME TRAVELER
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It’s the story of three men on the same boat… and the fourth below deck.
Three solitary minds going through an ocean of misery.
The first catches a big fish… which gets devoured. He doesn’t mind since this victory transcends the apparent failure.
The second’s catch is nothing short of miraculous… and devours him. Victory will be his greatest defeat.
The third refuses to fish… and gets devoured. But this defeat will be his victory.
A fourth man travels in the hold of a ship. For him, the sea means neither fish nor horizon… he will be devoured by rats.
The novelistic chronology of this tetraptych of solitude is of little consequence. All four heroes traverse a single world: immutable despite the wars that tear it apart, indifferent to the hopes of Santiago and Martin, as to the despair of Meursault and Bardamu.
For all the unequal fortunes of their odysseys, the heroes of London, Camus, and Hemingway share one conviction: the world's violence may batter the body, but leaves the soul untouched. The humanity of the self, always, rises above contingency.
Try selling that to Bardamu…
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INVESTIGATION
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If Céline had died in 1933, every French city would have a street named after him. The later ravings of France’s literary genius sometimes make us forget that his ‘Voyage’ remains one of the most humanist of misanthropic novels – or maybe it is the other way around.
Yet it must be acknowledged that even at the time of the novel's publication, Dr Destouches (alias Céline) showed little sign of pacifist commitment, and his behind-the-scenes manœuvring for the Prix Goncourt occupied him far more than the defence of his ideas.
Of the nineteen recorded luxury copies bearing an inscription by the author, every one served a thoroughly prosaic purpose: Goncourt jury members, influential critics, patrons.
Every one but this one: the present copy is inscribed to a Belgian pacifist writer who had been prosecuted for his anti-militarist articles.
Tousseul's copy of ‘Voyage’ is, to our knowledge, the only luxury copy Céline ever gifted out of pure intellectual conviction.
Edition-Originale presents its research into this unique bibliophilic piece, housed in a magnificent full doublure morocco binding by Hélène Alix.
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SELECTION. Remarkable Bindings, from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century
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“The binding has some golden grillwork which imprisons cockatoos of a thousand colors, boats with sails made of postage stamps, sultans with bird of paradise feathers on their heads to show how very rich they are. The book imprisons heroines who are very poor, steamboats which are very black, and poor gray sparrows. The author is a head imprisoned by a big white wall (I am alluding to his starched shirt front).”
Le Cornet à dés, Max Jacob, 1917
[The Dice Cup, translated by Ron Padgett]
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Our new acquisitions
Shaving the best for last ◊ A man of his sword ◊ A Hell of a binding
Every saint had a past… Yves had a future ◊ A knight to remember
Make mad love not war ◊ Albéniz’s scaling the heights
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A masterpiece of Surrealist literature, both an extension and opposite of Nadja
MAN RAY & BRASSAÏ & CARTIER-BRESSON & MAAR & BRETON
L'Amour fou [Mad Love]
Gallimard ◊ Paris 1937
First edition, one of 9 numbered copies on japon, only deluxe issue aside from 35 copies on pur fil, and a few on coloured paper.
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A rarissime copy of Albéniz's fantasies and variations, bearing his signature twice
Pedro ALBENIZ [Carl CZERNY]
Recreaciones Utiles - Variaciones Brillantes - Fantasia Elegante...
Madrid ◊ [1830-1845]
A rare and remarkable sammelband of six musical scores for pianoforte: four by the Spanish composer Pedro Pérez de Albéniz, together with two scarce Madrid imprints of fantasies by the Austrian composer Carl Czerny.
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Lawrence DURRELL & Karen HOROWITZ
Original poster inscribed
1974
Original poster by Karen Horowitz numbered 145/200, dated 1974 and signed in pencil, with a superimposed quote from Lawrence Durrell's Justine: “The world is like a cucumber – today it's in your hand, tomorrow up your ass”.
This poster was given to a young lover of the author's who, in both Sommières and Paris, livened up his lonely days at the end of the 60s and in the 70s, Janine Brun, also known as “Buttons”.
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"The pawns are the soul of chess": scarce first edition in a princely binding
Pierre Danican PHILIDOR
L'Analyze des échecs
[Analysis of the Game of Chess]
N. n. ◊ Londres 1749
Exceedingly rare first edition.
True first edition of Philidor’s chess book housed in a contemporary armorial binding of a noble chess player: Charles Theodore, Elector Palatine of the Rhine.
Later forming part of the library of famous chess player Lothar Schmid, chess grandmaster and arbiter of the 20th century.
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Giuseppe TOMASI DI LAMPEDUSA
Le Guépard [Il Gattopardo]
Seuil ◊ Paris 1959
First edition in French, one of 150 numbered copies on vélin neige paper, the only deluxe copies.
Rare and handsome copy of this masterpiece magnificently adapted for cinema by Luchino Visconti.
Rare and fine copy.
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Louis ANQUETIN
Duel à l'épée : Étude 4
Original charcoal drawing
End of 19th - Beginning of 20th Century
Original charcoal drawing, presented under a two-colour mat frame.
With the workshop's stamp on the back.
Very good condition.
Provenance: artist's workshop, referenced in the Atelier Louis Anquetin catalogue (Thierry de Maigret, 28/11/08).
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Two plays by the "greatest of Shakespeare's contemporaries"
Ben JONSON
The Staple of News [suivi de] The Devil is an Ass
Robert ALLOT • John BEALE ◊ Londres 1631
Very scarce first editions of The Staple of News and The Devil is an Ass by Ben Jonson, master of comedy and satire who appears alongside Shakespeare as the most celebrated playwright of the English Renaissance.
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[NADAR] [Guy DE MAUPASSANT]
Photographic portrait of Guy de Maupassant
Paul Nadar ◊ [1888 - 1900]
Original and fairly large cabinet card photograph. Maupassant was 38 years old when he sat before Nadar's lens in July 1888 (though some sources give 1890 as the date).
A photograph mounted on Nadar's studio card with his stamp below.
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