November 14, 1913, the day of the publication of the first volume of the search time
lost, is an important date in the history of book collecting.
Indeed, whatever the affection one has for the writing of Marcel Proust, the
thirteen volumes of In Search of Lost Time, deserve a special place in the
ideal library of bibliophile.
Like Gide to the receipt of the manuscript, it can be put off by the universe
this singular worldly recluse, it is also fun to intervention
Descaves at the end of the deliberation of the 1919 Goncourt: "Proust has the Goncourt
Dorgelès talent, you can not have everything. "It is no surprise, however much the
mea culpa of the director of the prestigious NRF or the care with which the eminent
member of the Goncourt kept his copy of Du Swann that he had
Proust dedicated six years earlier. (See our catalog)
But the attachment of bibliophiles for Research is he summarizes the talent unanimously
celebrated its author?
It is probably also the theme and form of the work that echo the approach
bibliophile, this complex and intimate art that is the composition of a library.
The numbered foirst edition, inscribed copy, the
edited manuscript are all madeleines that project one who feels their taste
especially in the context of creation. More than a recomposition of the past,
bibliophile's library, such as working memory of Proust, a
physical and symbolic resurgence of live text before erasing its "aura
original "by the infinite reproducibility of the letter (to borrow the concept of
Walter Benjamin, a great reader and translator of Proust).
Find the first body of work is not it like the Proustian phrasing, a
search for the soul of the book in the sometimes wobbly nature of its genesis, before
eventual success?
"The colophon on p. 528 "and its sequel" shell Grasset, "" the
coverage on the date of 1913, "" the catalog of the publisher, "" lack of table
materials "... the procession abstruse expressions for the neophyte but natural
lovers reveals itself as constitutive of the work of Proust that the coarse
apse of Combray "so devoid of artistic beauty and even religious impulse"
symbolizes, for Marcel, "the church."
For what is the bibliophile Proust, what he is grateful above all, it is
just for making the publication of his editorial adventure rich
all those little things that add spice to search for bargain hunters: first volume
at the author almost confidential, composed of successive draws all different,
headed, some great paper badges enrich unspeakable "closets"
autographs; a second volume also sought with the first drawing divided into
fictitious statements and his second after getting the Goncourt; Finally, the eleven volumes
follows that one can more easily acquire large paper. But Proust adds
the charm of a few signings which often prestigious booksellers and
bibliophiles are trying to trace the history: for example, the shipment to Descaves on service
Press From Swann reflecting a hope from his Prix Goncourt
first volume; these two signings Andre Salmon emphasizing his attention
Caring for representing another side of modernity; or earlier,
this volume of his translation of Ruskin offered his young friend and colleague Max Daireaux
with whom he maintained a literary correspondence.
With this wealth of features, Proust, the manuscript of the first
However pages Swann reached a record price room remains available to all
bibliophiles. Search connected between morocco or soft as published, with
"good" Swann, published or fully Gallimard, acquiring a set
homogeneous or reconstitution volume by volume, anyone can compose its Research
and enrich previous publications of Proust, for his many contributions
literary journals and testimonies of his family as he studies
are devoted.
It is for these reasons that at the end of 2013, after 100 years of
Camus was born, Librairie Le Feu Follet wished to pay tribute
bibliophile Swann on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of its publication.