Royaume-farfelu

First edition of Royaume-farfelu, published in Paris by Gallimard (Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française, 3, rue de Grenelle) in 1928. Limited edition of 572 copies: 13 on Imperial Japan paper, 23 on Pannekoek Dutch laid paper (including 3 hors commerce lettered copies), 486 on Lafuma Navarre wove paper, and 50 hors commerce copies on Alfa paper reserved for reviewers.

This is copy no. IX, one of the thirteen deluxe copies on Imperial Japan paper, the most sought-after of the three deluxe issues. Original printed wrappers, as issued.

The preliminary leaf bears the printed dedication, "À Louis Chevasson", present throughout the entire edition.

Royaume-farfelu marks the culmination of the "farfelu" narratives that André Malraux began in the early 1920s with Lunes en papier. The genesis of the work is particularly revealing of its development. As early as August 1925, Malraux published "L'Expédition d'Ispahan" in L'Indochine under the pseudonym Maurice Sainte-Rose, a text ultimately omitted from the book. Two years later, the review Commerce (no. 12) published "Le Voyage aux îles Fortunées", presented as an extract from the work then in preparation; this text was subsequently revised extensively for the first edition of 1928.

The dedication to Louis Chevasson is far more than a conventional tribute. A childhood friend of Malraux, Chevasson accompanied him on the December 1923 expedition to the Khmer temple of Banteay Srei in Cambodia, during which the removal of several bas-reliefs led to the arrest and trial of both men in Phnom Penh in 1924. This formative episode permeates Malraux's Asian period and lends particular resonance to the dedication at the opening of a work that already transforms the experience of travel into fiction.

One of only thirteen copies on Imperial Japan paper from the first edition, representing the most prestigious issue of the work that brought Malraux's early "farfelu" narratives to their culmination.