Personal copy of Charles Péguy’s collaborator André Bourgeois, administrator of the Cahiers de la quinzaine (literary magazine which published this novel). It exceptionally contains valuable bound-in manuscript notes by Romain Rolland and Péguy.

This exceedingly rare set in first edition is handsomely bound by the great René Kieffer. It contains every volume issued on deluxe paper - these being "deuxième exemplaire de souche", i.e. the name copy of the administrator after Charles Péguy's copy and before the printer's.

Bourgeois assembled Romain Rolland’s corrections made after rereading the printed proofs. It includes some amusing remarks by the writer: “je propose de couper de ‘Sénèque disait’ à ‘n’étaient pas très plaisantes’ (c’est un peu du bavardage misogyne)” (vol. 3) [I am suggesting that we remove from "Sénèque was saying..." to "were not very pleasant" it feels a little like misogynistic chatter"]. Two pages densely covered by manuscript text show six variants compared to the published version of a poignant tirade by Christophe convalescing in Paris:

 “[…] O all you whom I love, and whom I do not know! You whom life has not withered, you who dream of great things that you know to be impossible, you who struggle against the hostile world - I want you to have happiness - it is such a sweet thing! [published version: it is so good to be happy!]… […]” (vol. 6).

Several bound inleaves announce the titles of each volume or section,  one of them even contains the “titles to choose for the three volumes"  alternative titles ultimately not retained for the second series of the novel “Jean-Christophe à Paris”: “Notre Elite ou L’Elite”, or “Ceux qui gardent la porte” for the first volume, which finally appeared under the title La Foire sur la place; “Petite fille de France” or “Petite fleur de France” for Antoinette; “Notre France”, “La France” or “Celle qui rêve derrière la porte” for Dans la maison.

The copy also preserves the trace of the immense labour undertaken by the celebrated writer-editor Charles Péguy. Romain Rolland, despite their disagreements, “was always grateful for all he owed Péguy who published him” (Cahiers de l’amitié Charles Péguy). Included are all the manuscript leaves by Péguy for an errata page that he signed and published in the second volume: “We make our cahiers as carefully, as conscientiously as we can; industrial and typographical errors are, insofar as possible, reduced to the inevitable minimum; as a rule we do not return to them, for calling attention to such an error is even more unpleasant than the error itself; nevertheless, I wish to correct a mistake […] The text read: Le relief d’une ornière lui semblait un accident géographique, à peu près du même ordre que le massif du Taunus; the Taurus, which lies in Asia Minor, being generally better known than the Taunus, which is in Germany, […] we ask our subscribers to make the correction in their copy; it should read Taunus; Taunus is entirely in keeping with the spirit of Jean-Christophe […]”.

In volume 7 appears a manuscript leaf by Péguy containing his request to the printer for two additional sets of proofs for La Foire sur la place, along with typographical corrections: “Reproduce exactly the cover of the first volume of La Révolte; in particular, use 1s with a tail to the left so that they do not look like Roman capital I’s.”

But it is also thanks to the owner of this copy André Bourgeois that Jean-Christophe came into being. The administrator had prevented the Cahiers from succumbing to their utopian vision of free distribution:

“Discreet and taciturn, conscientious and exact, this former bank clerk knew his trade admirably and liked to see order prevail everywhere. He was entirely devoted to Péguy. Making Péguy’s venture his own - both modest and fraught with risks - he assumed all the administrative responsibilities […] the new administrator took vigorous measures to ensure payment of the subscriptions. For three months he worked without respite, twelve hours a day, Sundays included. He resolutely put an end to Péguy’s illusions regarding non-paying subscribers.” (Frantisek Laichter, Péguy et les Cahiers de la Quinzaine).

 At the conclusion of the publication of Jean-Christophe, André Bourgeois had these remarkable leaves (precious witnesses to the genesis of the work) bound by Kieffer in his name copy.

The most desirable copy of this major and celebrated saga by Romain Rolland, “encompassing collective drifting and individual tragedies, a plunge into the depths of Germany and France, the pursuit of the absolute to the point of death and the call back to life in order to merge into eternity, the passage from one century to the next and the foreknowledge of great tragedies to come” (Thierry Moulonguet).

This seminal work of pacifist literature, written on the eve of the WW1 earned Rolland the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1915.

View the copy containing added manuscripts