Partly first edition, an advance (service de presse) copy.
Very precious and moving autograph inscription from Maurice Blanchot to his mother and sister: "Car pour nous, au sein des jours quelque chose peut-il apparaître qui ne serait pas le jour, quelque chose qui dans une atmosphère de lumière et de limpidité représenterait le frisson d'effroi d'où le jour est sorti? Pour la chère maman et la chère Marg, en toute reconnaissance et affection. Maurice [Because for us, could something appear amongst our days that isn’t the day, something that – in an atmosphere of light and softness – will represent the frisson of dread from which the day is born? For darling mother and dear Marg, with all gratitude and affection. Maurice].”
Small clear spots to edges of covers.
First edition, second issue, on ordinary paper, with the printer's date of 8 November 1913, and the corrected typographic error to Grasset on the title page, without the index.
Half grey morocco by Thomas Boichot, spine in six compartments, date at foot, covers and spine mounted on guards, top edge gilt, slipcase trimmed with grey morocco.
Inscribed copy to Count Primoli: “Hommage d'attachement respectueux et bien vif [As a token of my respectful and heartfelt affection].”
Joseph Napoléon, Count Primoli (1851-1927), was the great nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte. Closely tied to the imperial family during the Second Empire, he was later a faithful visitor to his beloved aunt, Princess Mathilde's salon, held at her mansion in the rue de Berri. His refined and spiritual conversation was much admired there. As a passionate book collector, he also met some of the great writers of his time: Gustave Flaubert, Théophile Gautier, the Goncourt brothers and even Guy de Maupassant. It was also there that he got to know, from the 1890s on, the young Marcel Proust. The two men forged an easy friendship. The Count was also devoted to strengthening literary and cultural ties between Rome (his city of birth) and Paris, and invited the writer several times to visit the Italian capital. Proust never went, but in his eyes, Primoli's letters alone carried “a little of the charm of Rome” (letter from Proust to Primoli, early 1907, cited in: Pasquali C., Proust, Primoli, la moda, p. 26). On the occasion of the death of Princess Mathilde, who had made their meeting possible, in 1904, Proust wrote to the Count: “allow me to say only that I shed bitter tears with you, because I loved the Princess with an infinite respect – and because it gives me so much pain to think of you so unhappy, you who are so good and for whom one would wish with all one's heart happiness; with your sad and wounded heart, one wishes that every evil blow would spare you.” (4 January 1904, ibid., p. 21).
When Swann's Way was published in November 1913, Count Primoli was one of the very first to receive a copy personally inscribed by the author. A letter from Proust dated from early January 1914 mentions the present copy: “Dear Sir, When my book came out you were one of the very first people I thought of. From the first day we were sending out books, I kept questioning my valet: ‘has Count Primoli's copy gone out?' He told me it had and it was true. Just today, when I received your card (so amusing and lovely) where you talk of the Mona Lisa's escort ‘in the guise of a musician,' I said to my valet: ‘Look, a card from Count Primoli.' He looked at it. ‘What? The Count is in Rome? But I sent the book to Paris!' I had a moment of fury and disappointment. Perhaps your concierge has sent your copy on to Rome. But just to make sure, I'm sending a second copy to Rome. Only, I have none left of the first edition. You'll find one in Paris when you come back, it's been there for some time. I can only send you a copy of the second printing, which, by the by, has fewer grave mistakes than the first. But I am too sick and too unhappy at the moment to correct them all myself...” (ibid., p. 51). This copy, then, is the copy of the second issue that Proust send to Primoli in Rome and mentions in his letter.
A fine copy bearing witness to the friendly links between Marcel Proust and Count Primoli.
