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September 25, 2025

Le Feu Follet's Letter # 69

Dissidences at Work

Whether dissidences that herald upheaval or vain struggles that remain underground, dreams of justice or fantasies of chaos, the propositions are sometimes sterile, but opposition is always fertile. In this era of great divergences of visions about the future, a look at the past warns us that while the Yes is unifying, it is salutary to preserve the No!
No means Know |
 

'Social cohesion' means to acquiesce, to unite individualities around a common agreement or, at the very least, an agreement on what is common.

Whether democratic, autocratic, theocratic, or ideological, a society is defined by adherence — even implicit — to a culture, beliefs, and a shared imagination. And La Boétie reminds us that even a state of servitude feeds on the servility of its community.

But community does not mean exhaustivity, far from it. And beneath the apparent consensus, the embers of refusal always smolder!

Le Feu Follet, as an archaeologist of written thought, has delved beneath the discourses of assent that create our societies, to extract the works of resentment that destabilize them.

Whether dissidences that herald upheaval or vain struggles that remain underground, dreams of justice or fantasies of chaos, the propositions are sometimes sterile, but opposition is always fertile. In this era of great divergences of visions about the future, a look at the past warns us that while the Yes is unifying, it is salutary to preserve the No!

 

FOCUS

"But in that obedience which we hold to be due to the commands of rulers, we must always make the exception, nay, must be particularly careful that it is not incompatible with obedience to Him to whose will the wishes of all kings should be subject, to whose decrees their commands must yield, to whose majesty their sceptres must bow."
FOCUS SUR
Praelectiones Ioannis Calvini

 

INVESTIGATION

Dissident speech is not always the fruit of conscious revolt. It sometimes begins with a simple voice rising in silence to bring to light what was buried and proclaim what we would prefer to silence.

When Vasily Grossman discovers the disguised ruins of Treblinka, he grasps the urgency of revealing to the world the greatest crime of the 20th century. The Hell of Treblinka, written before the discovery of Auschwitz, is thus the earliest and one of the most important accounts of how the extermination camps functioned. Yet it would be, like the other testimonies that followed, stifled both by censorship and by the public denial.

Edition-Originale reveals to you the too discreet history of 'the book that revealed to the world the existence and horrors of the death camps'.

NEW ACQUISITION

Sanskrit devotional manuscript, illustrated with miniatures [Mahâbârata]
Collection of 11 original mythological paintings
[ca 1800]

Exceptional 19th-century Sanskrit manuscript for Hindu worship, comprising various sacred texts illustrated with 11 beautifully preserved miniatures, heightened with gold, depicting Indian deities.
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Ernest HEMINGWAY
A Moveable Feast [Paris est une fête]
Jonathan Cape ◇ London [May, 21] 1964

First English edition of Hemingway’s masterpiece in the original unclipped dust jacket (selling price: 18s. net). A rare and attractive copy of Hemingway’s celebrated memoir of his early years in Paris between 1921 and 1926, published posthumously nearly forty years after the events described.
SEE MORE

Paul NIZAN
Aden Arabie
Éditions Rieder ◇ Paris 1931

First edition, one of 50 numbered copies on Rives vellum, printed in sheets. The author’s debut opens with the celebrated sentence: “I was twenty, I won't let anyone say those are the best years of your life” .
Signed autograph presentation from Paul Nizan to his publisher on the half-title.
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Roger BULIARD
Inuk "Au dos de la terre !"
Éditions Saint-Germain ◇ Paris 1949

First edition, decorated with a frontispiece, illustrations and maps throughout the text, and a double-page folding map at the close.
An exceptional and unique copy, further distinguished by the inclusion of original photographs of the author during his expedition.
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Jacques-Yves COUSTEAU
Résultats scientifiques des campagnes de la "Calypso"
Masson & Cie ◇ Paris 1955-1979

First edition. 
Each part is abundantly illustrated with figures and photographs both in- and out-of-text. 
Rare complete set in 11 volumes.
SEE MORE

Blaise CENDRARS
Moravagine
Grasset ◇ Paris 1926

First edition on ordinary paper, bearing the correct colophon dated 26 February 1926. 
A pleasant copy.
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Émile ZOLA
Germinal
G. Charpentier & Cie ◇ Paris 1885

First edition on ordinary paper. With a precious autograph presentation inscription signed by Émile Zola to one of the principal inspirations for Germinal: "A Yves Guyot son dévoué confrère. Emile Zola." [“To Yves Guyot, his devoted colleague. Émile Zola.”]
 
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Joan CRAWFORD
Signed photograph
[1980]

Black-and-white reprint photograph of Joan Crawford, circa 1950s. 
Inscribed and signed by the actress to the distinguished autograph collector Claude Armand: “Dear Claude, thank you for your warming letter. Bless you. Joan Crawford.”
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René Aubert de VERTOT
Histoire des chevaliers hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jérusalem, appelez depuis les chevaliers de Rhodes, et aujourd'hui les chevaliers de Malte
Desaint Rollin Quillau ◇ Paris 1726

First edition, illustrated with a portrait of the author as frontispiece to the first volume, 6 detailed maps and plans, and 70 engraved portraits, 65 depicting the illustrious Grand Masters of the Order of Malta.
SEE MORE

RARE INSCRIBED COPY TO “A WOMAN WHO WAS TO BYRON WHAT BEATRICE WAS TO DANTE, AND VITTORIA COLONNA TO MICHELANGELO.”
_______________________________

Louise COLET (inscribed to Teresa GUICCIOLI) Lui
Librairie Nouvelle A. Bourdilliat & Cie ◇ Paris 1860

First edition, enriched with an autograph letter signed by Louise Colet. 
Rare presentation copy, inscribed to the Marquise de Boissy, Teresa Guiccioli, famed for her liaison with Lord Byron and formerly mistress to Colet’s husband.
SEE MORE
 
 
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Le Feu Follet's Letter
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