Paris

The very rare first edition.

Full glazed red calf bindings, smooth spines ornately decorated with gilt vegetal motifs, black calf title labels, gilt tooling on the headcaps, frames of quadruple black and gilt fillets enhanced with gilt fleurons at the corners on marbled paper boards, pink paper endpapers and pastedowns slightly soiled at margins, all edges gilt, gilt fillets at head and tail of leading edges, contemporary bindings.

Some light rubbing to boards, some minor foxing.

A handsome and rare copy of this work dedicated to his friend Béranger bound in an elegant contemporary Romantic binding. 

Touching handwritten letter signed by Georges Bataille to Denise Rollin, 37 lines in pencil, small water stain in the top right not affecting the text.
Georges Bataille tries to reassure his companion Denise Rollin: “Je t'en supplie. Il ne faut pas t'inquiéter, mais pas du tout.” “I beg you. You must not worry, not at all.” She moved to Vézelay where Bataille would soon join her. He stayed in Paris where the bombings did not disrupt Parisian lives at all: “Tu n'imagines point à quel point les petits dégâts qu'on voit paraissent insignifiants à côté de la place intacte qu'il y a de tous les côtés. Pendant toute l'alerte, j'ai déjeuné bien tranquille avec mon chef de...