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Barnebys

3705 results
  2. Hymne au Roy sur la prinse de Callais
    Joachim DU BELLAY
    Hymne au Roy sur la prinse de Callais
    Fédéric Morel|s. l. 1558|16.50 x 23 cm|relié
    First edition, a second edition appeared, with the same publisher, the following year. Printer's device, with the tree, on the title page.
    Full-margined copy, entirely ruled in red. Privilege dated 17 January 1557.
    Reused binding in full cream vellum probably from the 17th century.
    In his Hymne au Roy, du Bellay praises the Duke of Guise who retook Calais from the English, on 8 January 1558, after a week's siege and the death of two hundred Englishmen. Let us recall that Calais had been in English hands since 1347.
    Other poets would describe the successes of this enterprise in odes, such as Jean Dorat (1505-1588) or Michel de l'Hospital (ca. 1506-1573).
    Following the hymn, one finds a patriotic poem: "evocation of the tutelary gods of Guynes". This last was a small fortress that defended Calais and which fell with that city. The pamphlet ends with "Exécration sur l'Angleterre, et un Sonnet à la Royne d'Escosse".
    Handsome copy of this publication in which, like other poets of the Pléiade, Joachim Du Bellay rises to the rank of militant court poet.
    €3,000
  3. Le matin des magiciens
    Louis PAUWELS, Jacques BERGIER
    Le matin des magiciens
    [The Morning of the Magicians]
    Gallimard|Paris 1960|15 x 21 cm|relié
    First edition, one of 36 numbered copies on vélin pur fil, this N°1, the only large paper copies
    Grained sharkskin-effect leather by Alain Devauchelle (dated 2004), various shades of pink with glittering effect, no title to spine, a triangle of mother of pearl applied to centre of upper cover, maroon suede pastedowns and endpapers, covers and spine preserved, half maroon calf chemise with flaps, author and title in palladium, maroon suede lining, the slipcase edged with maroon calf and lined with grey felt
    A fine copy in an important artist's binding evoking the esoteric nature of the book.
    €4,500
  6. Les diaboliques
    Jules BARBEY D'AUREVILLY
    Les diaboliques
    [The She-Devils]
    E. Dentu|Paris 1874|12 x 18.50 cm|relié

    First edition, of which there were no large paper copies.

    Near contemporary red half morocco over marbled paper boards by P. Ruban, spine in six compartments, raised bands bounded by black fillets, date gilt at foot of spine, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, covers preserved, top edge gilt.

    Attractive ex libris engraved by Provost-Blondel on pastedown, representing a helmet with a feather, medallion and a strip with the motto “Tojours en face.” The ex libris belonged to Victor Coué, a 2nd Lieutenant killed in the First World War.
    This copy has two frontispieces: one lithograph heightened by Félicien Rops showing a caricature of Barbey d'Aurevilly with the caption “Il n'a pour page que son ombre. TS [his page is none other than his shadow]” and a portrait of the author engraved by Paul-Adolphe Rajon (1843-1888).
    This copy is further enriched with the eponymous series of engravings by Félicien Rops done between 1882 and 1886 with a view to a new edition by Alphonse Lemerre.

    The meeting of these two major works of literature and history of art from the end of the 19th century makes for an exceptional and unique copy, since – contrary to what is generally thought – Rops' prints never actually accompanied Barbey's text in a genuine illustrated edition.

    The series is composed of three frontispiece plates: La Femme et la folie dominant le monde I et II [Woman and Madness Ruling the World I and II], Le Sphinx [The Sphinx], and six others referring respectively to six of Barbey's short stories and figuring at the beginning of each: Le Rideau Cramoisi [The Cramoisi Curtain], Le Plus Bel Amour de Don Juan [Don Juan's Finest Affair], Le Dessous de cartes d'une partie de whist [The Undersides of the Cards in a Game of Whist], à un dîner d'athées [At an Atheists' Dinner], Le Bonheur dans le Crime [The Joy of the Crime] and La Vengeance d'une femme [A Woman's Revenge].

    A very good copy in a practically contemporary binding.

    €5,000
  9. Les mains de Jeanne-Marie
    Arthur RIMBAUD
    Les mains de Jeanne-Marie
    Jeanne-Marie's Hands
    Au sans pareil|Paris 1919|13.50 x 20 cm|relié

    First edition, one of 42 numbered copies on Japon paper, the leading copies after 8 hors commerce on Chine paper.
    Elegant Bradel binding in half black calf over floral paper boards by P. Goy & C. Vilaine, covers preserved (lightly soiled at edges), top edge gilt.
    With a frontispiece portrait of the author on Chine paper by Jean-Louis Forain.
    One tiny foxing as well as a small, clear marginal dampstain touching frontispiece.
    A very good copy nicely bound.

    €1,200
  10. Cказки
    Максимъ ГОРЬКІЙ [Maxime GORKI]
    Cказки
    [Tales]
    Ladyschnikow Verlag|Berlin s. d. [1911]|12 x 19 cm|relié
    First edition.
    Half saffron calf Bradel binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets at head and foot, gilt border on the covers, marbled paper pastedowns and endpapers, gilt edges; contemporary binding.
    Very rare and valuable autograph inscription in Cyrillic signed by Maxime Gorky to Grigory Alexey Alexinsky, deputy of the Duma and man of letters: "à G.A. Alexinsky, au camarade, avec toute la sympathie et le respect, l'auteur."
    €8,000
  13. Les Ressources de Quinola
    Honoré de BALZAC
    Les Ressources de Quinola
    [The Resources of Quinola]
    Hippolyte Souverain|Paris 1842|13.50 x 22 cm|relié
    The rare first edition.

    Half caramel morocco, spine in five compartments, marbled pastedowns and endpapers, restored wrappers preserved, marbled edges.
    Foxed.

    With an important autograph inscription signed by Honoré de Balzac to his friend Laurent-Jan, to whom Vautrin was dedicated, and the model for Bixiou, Léon de Lora and several other characters in The Human Comedy.
    He was at the same time Balzac's best friend, trusted secretary, ghost writer and perhaps even… “beloved.”
    “…the singular phenomenon of the inventor who moved, in 16th century Barcelona, a vessel by steam past three hundred thousand spectators; that today we have no idea what became of him, denies this rage. But I've guessed the why, and that is [the basis of] my Comedy” (letter to Mme Hanska).

    The Resources of Quinola is at the same time Scapin's Deceits and The Marriage of Figaro. Balzac's ambition from the 1840s up to his death was in essence to make a name for himself comparable to that of his illustrious predecessors. A hope as futile as it was abiding, he nonetheless never doubted his imminent success despite every setback.
    The author of The Human Comedy may well have thought that the principal source of humor in the work was the hero and his scathing repartee. For Balzac in fact knew this character, this fierce and eloquent harlequin, well – his name was Laurent-Jan and he was Balzac's most faithful friend in the last years of his life.
    Though most of their correspondence seems to have disappeared, it is thought that they met before 1835 (Albéric Second mentions a dinner in the rue Casini, where Balzac lived from 1829 to 1835).
    An eccentric and provocative character, Laurent-Jan had pride of place in the Bohemian life that Balzac led during these years, most notably with Léon Gozlan, Charles Lassailly, Paul Gavarni and Albéric Second, according to whom the writer “was slumming it both pleasurably and profitably” (Maurice Regard, Balzac et Laurent-Jan).
    All of them remained silent on the “excesses” of these tumultuous years, of which some eloquent traces have nonetheless come down to us in their correspondence; like the letter in which Balzac invites Gavarni to a soirée at Laurent-Jan's to “stretch a very well dressed chotepis a tad,” signed “TicTac dit vit d'ours [TicTac, quick say bear]”. Laurent-Jan was the principal organizer of these Balzacian orgies in his house at 23 rue des Martyrs, which inspired some scenes in The Human Comedy:
    “The seraglio, like the salon of a brothel, offered temptations for every eye and voluptuaries for every taste. There was a dancer naked under veils of silk, pretend-virgins who breathing sacral innocence, aristocratic beauties – proud and indolent, a pale and chaste Englishwoman, and young ladies starting conversations by establishing certain basic truths, such as: “Virtue we'll leave to the ugly and hunchbacked!” (cf. Hervé Manéglier, Les artistes au bordel, 1997).
    These crazy years coincided in Balzac's work with characters who were sexually ambivalent or clearly homosexual, like the androgynous Zambinella and Séraphita, Raphaël de Valentin, who had “a sort of effeminate grace,” Louis Lambert “always gracious, like a woman in love,” Lucien de Rubempré, and above all the character now considered the first homosexual in French literature: Vautrin.
    Seeing this particular interest for different sexualities evidenced in The Human Comedy between 1830 and 1836 (but not before or after, if Maurice Regard is to be believed), a number of commentators have been interested in Balzac's sexuality during this period, in which the author was ‘with' almost all his young collaborators.
    Thus, S. J. Bérard and P. Citron raise the question of the surprising witticisms that run through Balzac's correspondence with his young “protégés.” “You, who tell me to fuck myself…you've summed up my feelings about you perfectly - so come here, then, and get yourself fucked; and be quick about it!” he writes to Latouche. Even stranger are the formulas with which he signs off his correspondence with Eugène Sue, which are a little surprising to say the least: “Yours, in the Pineal Gland,” “Yours perineally,” “I admire your foreskin and I remain yours,” etc.
    We've not found any correspondence with Laurent-Jan before 1840, at which time he writes Balzac letters commencing “Beloved,” or “My darling,” and ending with an explicit “I press myself against your great big chest.”
    According to allusions by some of his contemporaries, this dual sexuality of Balzac's seems to have been well known. Albéric Second compared his male relationships to those of Nisus and Euryale, while Roger de Beauvoir gave him the nickname “Seraphinus” and Edward Allet captioned his caricature of Balzac: “the Reverend Father don Seraphitus culus mysticus Goriot...conceives...a mass of inconceivable things and ephialtesticulary incubuses,” [a reference to Ephialtes, who ‘took King Leonidas from behind' at Thermopylae].

    For contemporary critics, however, the question of what Pierre Citron terms Balzac's “ambisexuality” remains open. Among the theories advanced by Citron, S. J. Bérard, and P. Berthier is that Balzac's relationship with Laurent-Jan (for whom we are not aware of any escapades with women) fits with a hypothesis of active or imagined homosexuality on Balzac's part.
    If we add that the play Vautrin is dedicated to Laurent-Jan, to thank him – Gautier writes – for having “really rolled up his sleeves”, Laurent-Jan appears as one of the principal figures tied to the “shadowy areas of Balzac's psychology,” (the title of Pierre Citron's study of the subject).

    From 1841 on, the correspondence between Balzac and Laurent-Jan is distinctly less ambiguous and their extravagant language gives way to professions of friendship and mutual admiration right up to the Master's death on the 18th August 1850; Laurent-Jan signed his death certificate.
    During these final ten years, the man whom Gozlan considers “Balzac's best friend” and Philibert Audebrant “the right hand of the author of The Human Comedy,” was more specifically Balzac's principal partner in his great theatrical adventure, a passion that was to consume the debt-stricken novelist in search of recognition and financial success.

    Théophile Gautier tells us that in 1840, when Balzac urged Laurent-Jan, Ourliac and de Belloy to write the play Vautrin, which he had already sold to the Porte-Saint-Martin Theatre but not as yet written, only Laurent-Jan was willing: “Balzac started out by saying, when referring to Vautrin, your piece, then little by little, our piece and eventually…my piece.”

    Laurent-Jan nonetheless got a prestigious dedication in print, an honor he shares with a handful of illustrious contemporaries like Victor Hugo, George Sand and Eveline Hanska, to whom Balzac also dedicated works.
    The banning of the piece did not discourage Balzac, who persisted in his dream of making his fortune in theatre with the active and enthusiastic co-operation of Laurent-Jan, to whom the Master entrusted the writing, correction or re-writing of numerous plays and works: Lecamus, Monographie de la presse parisienne [A Monograph of the Parisian Press], Le Roi des mendiants [The Beggar King] (“a superb basis for a two-man play”), etc.
    “Also, you'll be getting several scripts to fill your spare time, because I want your help,” Balzac wrote him from Wierzchownia in 1849.
    One year earlier, before leaving for Poland, Balzac made this collaboration official by means of a power of attorney for literary affairs to Lauren-Jan, dated the 19th September 1848. “I declare that I have invested Monsieur Laurent-Jan with all my powers in everything relating to literary matters…he can make additions or cuts, and any necessary changes;…in fact, he shall represent me entirely.”
    Laurent-Jan took his task very seriously, as his many exchanges with the unhappy demiurge show. Balzac would never live to see the success he craved, as opposed to his friends Dumas and Hugo, to whom he compared himself, even during his failures. Thus, after the Resources of Quinola flopped, he wrote to Mme Hanska:
    “Quinola was the subject of a memorable battle, comparable to Hernani.” Duly noted!
    On the 10th December 1849, more or less at death's door, Balzac still ties Laurent-Jan to all his projects in a letter that is admirable for its courage and hope: “Come, my friend, a little courage, and we shall board the ship of drama, good subjects in hand, to sail to the lands of Marivaux, New-Beaumarchais and New Comedy.”

    It is more than likely that the character of Quinola was partly inspired by this faithful friend, admired by Balzac, who signed his letters “a thousand times your friend,” or “my heart is all yours,” or “your respectful master, all proud of his pretend valet,” (reflecting on the title Laurent-Jan gave himself).
    Laurent Jan, as brilliant as he was vain, never produced any work worthy of this title, but was nonetheless undoubtedly a significant source of inspiration for Balzac, who owed him a number of ‘bon mots' peppering his works. In The Human Comedy, it is Bixiou and Léon de Lora above all who are directly inspired by this eccentric bohemian, but beyond these two characters (writes Maurice Regard) “many of Balzac's shadows accompany this ancient, hunched and wrinkled form: Schinner, Steinbock, Gendrin” owe him “a little bit of themselves [and] much of their spirit.”

    Balzac never stopped telling those who were close to him of the indefatigable affection he cherished for his “unrepentant misanthrope,” who did not always enjoy a good reputation. “He's better than he seems. I, for one, love him seriously and well,” (letter to Laure de Surville).

    A few days before the death of her husband, Eve de Balzac recounted to his niece Sophie de Surville the transformative effects of the visits from his beloved.
    “Your uncle is really much better, he's very cheerful and animated all day, and I attribute this to a good visit from our friend Laurent-Jan, who was more dazzling than ever yesterday evening – he was really fascinating and my dear patient kept repeating both yesterday and today: ‘admit that no one is more spirited than that boy.'”
    €20,000
  14. Domaine
    Oscar DOMINGUEZ, Robert GANZO
    Domaine
    S. n.|s. l. 1942|19.50 x 25.50 cm|en feuilles sous chemise et étui

    With 8 original etchings to text and hors-texte by Oscar Dominguez, one of 70 numbered copies on B.F.K. de Rives paper, the only printing with 4 on old Japon paper, variously enriched.
    Autograph inscription from Robert Ganzo to a couple of his acquaintance on half title.
    This copy is additionally enhanced with a manuscript quatrain signed by the author on the page opposite half-title.
    Autograph signatures of the author and illustrator on the justification page.
    Some slight small foxing mostly affecting the first leaves, a joint of the chemise cracked, with a tear almost all over it.
    A rare copy in a chemise and flexible slipcase with wood-effect paper boards.

    €3,800
  16. Le tombeau de Théophile Gautier
    Victor HUGO, Stéphane MALLARMÉ
    Le tombeau de Théophile Gautier
    Alphonse Lemerre|Paris 1873|19.50 x 27 cm|relié
    First edition, one of 10 numbered copies on Whatman paper initialled by the publisher, deluxe issue.
    Half chocolate morocco binding with corners, spine with five raised bands, date gilt at foot, marbled paper boards, hand-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original delicate parchment wrappers preserved (with discreet and skillful restorations), gilt edges, binding signed Goy & Vilaine.
    Contributions by Victor Hugo, Stéphane Mallarmé, Charles Cros, Frédéric Mistral, Paul Arène, Théodore de Banville, Léon Cladel, Jules Claretie, François Coppée, Léon Dierx, Anatole France, Albert Glatigny, José-Maria de Heredia, Arsène Houssaye, Jules Janin, Charles Leconte de Lisle, Catulle Mendès, Albert Mérat, Sully Prudhomme...
    Frontispiece portrait of Théophile Gautier by Bracquemond. Final endpaper partially creased.
    A very handsome copy, uncut, beautifully bound.
    €1,500
  17. Religions et religion - Exemplaire d'Alphonse Daudet
    Victor HUGO (inscribed to Alphonse DAUDET)
    Religions et religion - Exemplaire d'Alphonse Daudet
    [Religions and Religion – Alphonse Daudet’s copy]
    Michel Lévy|Paris 1880|15.50 x 23.50 cm|relié

    First edition.
    Contemporary half red shagreen over marbled paper boards, (a few discreet repairs), spine in six compartments, date to foot, marbled paper-lined endpapers and pastedowns, covers preserved, top edge red.
    A very handsome autograph inscription signed by Victor Hugo to Alphonse Daudet.
    Mrs. Daudet's collection stamp to first endpaper.

    Victor Hugo represented for Alphonse Daudet, as for the other writers of his generation, the incontestable master of the Pantheon of the arts. His benevolent attention runs through Daudet's work, often listed side by side with Rousseau, Byron, Sand and Delacroix.
    If during Daudet's childhood and youth, Hugo, an exile of enormous stature in Guernsey, remained a distant ideal, "almost above humanity", his return to France allowed him finally to meet the master. Around 1875, just after his first works appeared, Alphonse and Julia Daudet were thus invited to Hugo's house; Hugo was living with Juliette Drouet at the time.
    From then on, they become frequent visitors to the house right up to the poet's death. Hugo helped with the young Léon Daudet's education, his grandson Georges' best friend and, later, for a short while, Jeanne's husband.
    In her Souvenirs d'un cercle littéraire [Memories of a Literary Circle], Julia Daudet talks of their friendship of ten years with "the idol of lyric France":
    "I can see Victor Hugo at the end of his great table: the aged master, a little cut off, a little deaf, presiding with god-like silence, the little absences of a genius on the verge of immortality. His hair all white, his face colorful, and his eyes like an old lion's that would occasionally flash with ferocious bursts of force. He is listening to my husband and Catulle Mendès, between whom there is a very animated discussion on the subject of the youth and celebrity of famous men and their charm for women...During the debate, we moved through to the salon, with Hugo musing beside the fire, famous, omni-present and a demi-god, but perhaps still missing his youth a little, as Mme Drouet sleeps softly."
    The friendship between this great Romantic writer and one of the masters of the nascent naturalist school is testimony to Hugo's sharpness who, even during his glory days, preserved a special and benevolent attention for modern literature, no matter how far removed it was from his own lyricism.

    This inscription from Hugo to Daudet on a work considered - along with Le Pape [The Pope] and La Pitié suprême [The Supreme Compassion] - a "philosophical testament" by Henri Guillemin, resonates strongly, the passing of the writer's political and moral responsibilities to a devoted disciple.

    Provenance: Alphonse Daudet, his sale at Sicklès (1990, IV, n°1200) then Philippe Zoummeroff's sale (2 Avril 2001).

    An extract from Memories of a Literary Circle by Julia Daudet :
    "How could I forget that first visit to his, in the rue de Clichy, in a modest apartment so out of proportion to his glory, to the image of his glory that we had, which would have filled entire palaces. He got up out of his chair beside the fire, opposite Madame Drouet, his old friend...I was shocked by how small he was but soon, after he had greeted me and begun talking to me, I felt him very big indeed, very intimidating. And this timidity that I felt then, I would always feel towards him, the result of my great admiration and respect, something akin to that for an absent god, that my parents had inculcated within me for inspired poets. I could never overcome that wobble in my voice whenever I would reply to his kind words, and I was shocked to hear women, over the course of almost ten years, when admitted to his presence, regale him with their personal matters and their everyday chatter.
    That evening, when he had introduced me, all in a flutter, to Madame Drouet, she said to me with her most charming grace: 'This is the old people's bit, you know, and you're far too young for us. But Monsieur Victor Hugo will introduce you to his daughter-in-law, Madame Lockroy; only he is qualified to do so.'
    So I was conducted to the other end of the room, of an average size, but which seemed to be cut in two by a table bearing a bronze elephant, most majestic - Chinese or Japanese, I think. In any case, it served to make two little most distinct groups which nonetheless communicated easily without blending one into the other.
    At this moment of his return, Victor Hugo was feeling exulted and was full of stories which he told with an inexhaustible verve whenever politics did not invade his dinner table too much. And how graceful his welcome, what noble manners and what a fine grandfatherly smile under his hair, that I saw grow whiter and whiter as he approached eighty. All the poets used to come to the salon in the rue de Clichy, and later to the house in the Avenue d'Eylau. But was this change of scene really necessary? It seemed to be a step down in the health and then in the spirits of the grand old man. And yet, he always loved to host his friends and the welcome in this open house was not the least of its charms for, gathered around the table, garnished at one end with the Master's two grandchildren, the company still looked for direction from their host's eyes and he himself sometimes struck a vein of memories so vibrant, so wonderfully recounted, that we were all bowled over the entire evening. Mme Drouet grew quietly older beside him, covered by two bandanas whose aspect was a little faded and melodramatic, right up until the day where a merciless illness broke her delicate beauty and made her the suffering effigy painted by Bastien Lepage, who died under the same tortures. Towards the end, the Master would glance sadly at her empty plate and noble, ravaged face during these intimate dinners.
    'Madame Drouet, you're not eating, you must eat, take heart.'
    Eat! She was dying. Did he know it? Was the great old man, so strong and so hardy, trying to fool himself, as he saw his companion of fifty years go?
    In the big living room, a handsome portrait by Bonnat hung, with a paternal attitude, and an immense bust by David presided. The little living room was decorated with striped and colored wallpaper, which seemed to have been chosen for Dona Sol. In the garden connected to the verandah by a platform of two steps, Leconte de Lisle, Meurice and Vacquerie, Paul de Saint-Victor, the smiling Banville reappeared, Flaubert and Goncourt talked, Mallarmé, Léon Cladel, François Coppée, Catulle Mendès, and Clovis Hugues, shadows in a vanished Eden. Then there were Léon Glaize, Gustave Rivet, Pierre Elzéar, and tiny Mme Michelet distributing roses at a party, as well as ambassadors, diplomats, the Emperor of Brasil, and painters, sculptors, and so many politicians I can't remember all their names!
    These are my direct impressions of one of the soirees we attended, Alphonse Daudet and I, one snowy evening, when our horse stumbled three times during the trip over as we were crossing the Esplanade des Invalides:
    I can see Victor Hugo at the end of his great table: the aged master, a little cut off, a little deaf, presiding with god-like silence, the little absences of a genius on the verge of immortality. His hair all white, his face colorful, and his eyes like an old lion's that would occasionally flash with ferocious bursts of force. He is listening to my husband and Catulle Mendès, between whom there is a very animated discussion on the subject of the youth and celebrity of famous men and their charm for women. Alphonse holds that in a salon full of all sorts of talented people of all ages a very young man, the unknown author, the overlooked poet will get female attention if he is handsome. Catulle Mendes answers that he would, firstly, remain unnoticed, and that all women went in for celebrity, which seems to me more correct. Fortunately, women not only have the eyes in their heads, but also the eyes of their souls and their hearts. For intellectual women, the looks of an artist or a great poet don't matter - it's the reflective aspect, the tormented features of a man who lives his emotions. They go for talent, to suffering that passes, and they hardly think about physical beauty. Now you could say that they seek out famous authors motivated by personal ambition, but the other feeling, that attracts them to tempting youths, seems to me even less respectable.
    And I laugh at the pretention of these two charming debaters in labeling and analyzing us. Talking about 'women' is like talking about 'birds': there are so many different species and types, whose song and feathers are so completely different!
    During the debate, we moved through to the salon, with Hugo musing beside the fire, famous, omni-present and a demi-god, but perhaps still missing his youth a little, as Mme Drouet sleeps softly. Her fair white hair covers her delicate head like the two wings of a dove, and the buttons of her blouse follow the pattern of the soft, almost resigned, breathing of an old woman sleeping.

    It was soon after this evening that that great gathering took place in which all Paris marched past, on the Avenue d'Eylau, the windows of this little bedroom that was now home to a deathbed, in May 1885, full of roses and plainly furnished, as it is represented in the Victor Hugo Museum in a room in the poet's former apartment on the Place Royale.
    Very evocative, this old corner of the Marais, especially if we consider that Victor Hugo wrote almost all his historical works there. We can picture the poet at work in the early morning hours, to which he kept, the high windows of the houses all identical and in the same style, stretching all the way around the square, guarding the memory of the tournaments, the duels, promenades and uprisings of several generations now vanished beneath these thick, ancient arcades, which keep no trace of fleeting humankind.
    We had dinner at Victor Hugo's house the week before he died. He told us as we were coming in, more pale that usual, and tottering as he walked:
    'I'll be going soon, I can feel it'. Then he squeezed Georges' shoulder: 'Without this one, I would have gone long ago.'
    I will never forget his slightly solemn and prophetic tone - I was struck by a sadness and presentiment. I felt the dispersal of this unique centre of the world that could never come together again!"

    €12,000
  18. L'expérience de Proust. Manuscrit autographe complet
    Maurice BLANCHOT (Marcel PROUST)
    L'expérience de Proust. Manuscrit autographe complet
    [The Proust Experience. Complete Autograph Manuscript]
    1943|21 x 13 cm|en feuilles
    Autograph manuscript by the author, four and a half pages in octavo, published in the issue of Journal des Débats dated 12 May 1943.
    Complete recto-verso manuscript in a dense hand, featuring numerous deletions, corrections, and additions.
    A literary column written on the occasion of the publication of Ramon Fernandez’s book À la gloire de Proust.

    It was to Maurice Blanchot that his friend Emmanuel Levinas owed his discovery of the work of Marcel Proust, which he deeply admired despite Charles Maurras’s condemnation—a judgment that, at first, failed to turn him away from it. What Blanchot valued most in Proust was his at times fluid rhythm and his remarkable sense of the scene. Placing him within his literary pantheon alongside the Marquis de Sade and Franz Kafka, Blanchot was drawn in the early 1940s to the very nature of the experience Proust conveyed in his novels: « L'œuvre de Proust est sortie d'états mystérieux qui semblent ne lui avoir été proposés que pour que cette œuvre fût écrite. Ils ont servi de stimulant à une extraordinaire avidité de connaître et, eux qui étaient d'abord une rupture de connaissance, ont fourni un aliment inépuisable à la connaissance littéraire. Cependant, ce n'est pas l'aspect le moins surprenant du Temps perdu que, dans le flot d'images, d'événements, de théories, de figures dont ils ont été par abus la source, ces états aient gardé la valeur d'un secret, en continuant, selon le pouvoir qui leur était propre, à paraître toujours plus mystérieux que l'œuvre elle-même, pourtant toute chargée de mystères. C'est en cela que Proust n'a pas trahi la révélation qu'il a rencontrée et dont il a offert l'image à la plus étendue et la plus admirable, comme pour montrer qu'elle ne l'épuisait pas. »
    The text, later revised, would become part of the opening section of Faux Pas (1943), devoted to what Blanchot regarded as the fundamental question of inner experience.

    A very clean manuscript, reflecting Blanchot’s clarity of thought on Proust.
    €2,800
  19. Komödie der Eitelkeit - Exemplaire de Raymond Queneau
    Elias CANETTI (inscribed to Raymond QUENEAU)
    Komödie der Eitelkeit - Exemplaire de Raymond Queneau
    [Comedy of Vanity – Raymond Queneau’s copy]
    Willi Weismann Verlag|München [Munich] 1950|13 x 21.50 cm|Reliure de l'éditeur

    First edition, of which there were no large paper copies.

    Complete with dj (slightly sunned at edges of spine and covers), small tears to head of upper cover. 
    Handsome autograph inscription, signed and dated by Canetti to Raymond Queneau : " Für Raymond Queneau aus Freude über eine unerwartete Begegnung, Juni 1951 [for Raymond Queneau, the pleasure of an unexpected meeting, June 1951]".

    €2,300
  20. Du côté de Nietzsche - Manuscrit autographe complet
    Maurice BLANCHOT (Friedrich NIETZSCHE)
    Du côté de Nietzsche - Manuscrit autographe complet
    [On Nietzsche’s Side – Complete Autograph Manuscript]
    1946|21.70 x 11.50 cm|7 feuillets foliotés
    Autograph manuscript by the author, 14 pages in octavo, published in issue no. 12 (December 1945–January 1946) of L'Arche.
    A complete recto-verso manuscript in a densely written hand, with numerous deletions, corrections, and additions.
    Essay published on the occasion of the release of Father du Lubac’s Le Drame de l’humanisme athée.

    After the war, the place of Friedrich Nietzsche—alongside the Marquis de Sade and Søren Kierkegaard—in Maurice Blanchot’s thought reflects the decisive influence of Georges Bataille and the philosophers he held in highest regard. From this point on, Blanchot devoted many texts to these figures, and “Du côté de Nietzsche” stands as a key testimony of that engagement. The very title of his forthcoming collection La Part du feu (to be published in 1949, including this article in a slightly revised form) is itself a Bataillean reference.
    For Blanchot, Nietzsche’s power, through his use of language and style, lies less in his most explicit and oft-commented theses than in the crucible of a more fluid and sometimes self-contradictory discourse: « L'influence de Nietzsche ne se réduit pas aux formes extérieures qu'elle a prises ; c'est probablement, au contraire, ce qui de Nietzsche a échappé à toute transmission manifeste, cette part de lui, étrangère aux influences directes, qui a exercé l'influence la plus profonde. »
    This idea would remain central to Blanchot’s reading of the German philosopher. Nietzsche’s inconsistency and ambiguity are embodied in the theme of the death of God, central to his work: « En aucune façon, le thème de la Mort de Dieu ne peut être l'expression d'un savoir définitif ou l'esquisse d'une proposition stable », Blanchot observes. And he famously adds: « Se contredire est le mouvement essentiel d'une telle pensée. » In L’Entretien infini (1969), Blanchot would once again revisit the Nietzschean question of the death of God, where it meets that of the unity of man.

    A remarkable text by Maurice Blanchot on Friedrich Nietzsche, illustrating the profound influence of Georges Bataille on his thought.
    €3,500
  21. Villiers de l'Isle Adam
    Stéphane MALLARMÉ (Auguste de VILLIERS DE L'ISLE-ADAM)
    Villiers de l'Isle Adam
    Librairie de l'Art Indépendant|Paris 1890|16 x 24.50 cm|broché sous chemise et étui
    First edition of which there were only printes 50 copies, this one of 5 numbered copies on Japon impérial, the tirage de tête.

    Autograph inscription by Stéphane Mallarmé to his friend François Nys : "A monsieur Nys très sympathiquement."

    This copy enriched in forntispiece with a portrait woddcut in red of Villiers de l'Isle-Adam by Marcellin Desboutin, which he inscribed for François Nys. This portrait, present in the second edition of 1892, is not present in every copy of the tirage de tête.
    Two very clear dampstains, not serious, in the margins of the first and final free endpapers, two small marginal dampstains to the covers.
    A good and rare copy.

    Cette étude est issue d'une série de conférences que Mallarmé donna en Belgique et en France à la mort de celui qui fut l'"une des grandes amitiés de sa vie". Bertrand Marchal, dans son essai sur Mallarmé, décrit cette conférence comme "une des grandes oraisons funèbres de notre littérature ; elle est aussi, avec le texte sur Rimbaud, l'une de ces biographies paradoxales où Mallarmé récuse le sens ordinaire de ce que l'on nomme la vie ; elle est évidemment le témoignage d'une amitié parfaite entre l'auteur d'Hérodiade et celui d'Isis. Elle est tout cela, mais elle n'est pas que cela. A travers l'évocation de la destinée exemplaire de Villiers, dans ce discours porté par l'émotion la plus haute, une méditation sur l'acte d'écrire et sur sa signification métaphysique, historique et politique. 'Sait-on ce que c'est qu'écrire ?' ".

    François Nys, Anversois d'origine, est l'imprimeur de la Société internationale des aquafortistes (S.I.A.) fondée en 1869 par Félicien Rops. Passé par de prestigieuses maisons parisiennes comme celle d'Auguste Delâtre puis Alfred Cadart, il est choisi par Rops pour la grande qualité de ses tirages. Ensemble, ils contribuent de manière magistrale au renouveau de l'eau-forte originale, désormais libérée de l'héritage romantique, et attirent à eux de nombreux graveurs de talent dont Félix Bracquemond, Adrien de Witte ou Marcellin Desboutin, qui dédicace ici son portrait de Villiers à Nys. Mais, en dépit de l'étendue de l'œuvre accomplie (exposition rétrospective, édition de 12 superbes portfolios), les difficultés financières finissent par avoir raison de leur enthousiasme et Nys quitte la Belgique en 1877. De retour à Paris, gagnant l'admiration des milieux symbolistes - dont celle de Mallarmé -, il travaille toujours comme imprimeur mais aussi comme libraire chez A. Quantin.

    Les cinq exemplaires sur Japon ont tous été répertoriés, le n°1 est dédicacé à Picard, un autre appartenait à André Gide, le présent exemplaire, n°3, enrichi du portrai,t comporte l'envoi à François Nys, le n°4 est sans envoi, et le dernier est agrémenté d'une dédicace à Tausserat.
    Cette dédicace à Nys sur l'un des très rares Japon témoigne de la haute estime que porte à l'imprimerie l'auteur du premier poème typographique de la littérature française : Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira jamais le hasard.
    Très rare et agréable exemplaire réunissant quelques-uns des plus grands noms de l'art du livre fin-de-siècle.
    €10,000
  26. Dix-sept histoires de marins
    Claude FARRÈRE (inscribed to Pierre LOUŸS)
    Dix-sept histoires de marins
    Paul Ollendorff|Paris 1914|11.50 x 19 cm|relié

    First edition.
    Elegant half navy blue morocco over marbled paper boards by Pierre-Lucien Martin, spine in six compartments with gilt fillets to bands and geometric decoration of red morocco onlays, date gilt at foot of spine, gilt fillet to boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt dentelle frame to pastedowns, covers and spine preserved, top edge gilt.

    A very good copy in a handsome binding. 
    Exceptional autograph inscription from Claude Farrère : "A Pierre Louÿs son très petit disciple [To Pierre Louÿs, his very humble disciple]", along with Chinese ideograms.

    €2,500
  28. Journal des Goncourt - Mémoires de la vie littéraire - Exemplaire de Frédéric Masson
    Edmond & Jules de GONCOURT
    Journal des Goncourt - Mémoires de la vie littéraire - Exemplaire de Frédéric Masson
    [Goncourt Journal – Memoirs of Literary Life – Copy of Frédéric Masson]
    Charpentier & Cie|Paris 1887-1896|12 x 19 cm|9 volumes reliés
    First edition on ordinary paper for each of the volumes.
    Bradel bindings in full cherry percaline, smooth spines decorated with a central gilt floral motif, dates and double gilt fillets at the tails, navy blue shagreen title pieces, covers preserved, contemporary bindings signed by Durvand.
    Precious autograph presentation inscription signed by Edmond de Goncourt, in each volume, to the Napoleonic historian Frédéric Masson, cousin by marriage of the Goncourt brothers. A republican fascinated by the Revolution in his youth, he became a staunch Bonapartist after the defeat of 1870. In 1874, Edmond de Goncourt witnessed his marriage to Marguerite Cottin, daughter of Auguste Cottin, who opened to him the archives of the imperial family. A historian and collector, he was elected to the Académie française on 18 June 1903. Their correspondence, published in the Cahiers Jules et Edmond de Goncourt, sheds light on the nature of their relationship. Edmond guided the young man and directed him toward literature. Frédéric Masson, an erudite bibliophile, informed Edmond about his library, responded to the Goncourt brothers’ requests for information, and contributed both to the preparation of Edmond’s historical works and to the enrichment of his re-editions. In 1870, in volume IV of the Journal, Goncourt described the young Frédéric Masson, then aged 23: "Ce soir, je rencontre le jeune Frédéric Masson, enterré dans sa capote de mobile. Lui, qui datait les lettres qu'il m'écrivait du collège, des brumaire et des messidor du calendrier républicain, je le trouve fort dégrisé de la république, des républicains, des soldats démocrates. Il se plaint que, lorsqu'il marchait avec Goubie en avant, ses frères n'emboîtaient point le pas. Et de sa mauvaise humeur contre le présent, un peu remonte à 89, et amène une baisse sensible de son lyrique enthousiasme d'autrefois pour la première république. Il est un symptôme. Je suis persuadé que beaucoup de jeunes gens ayant en eux-mêmes semblablement à Masson un grain d'exaltation révolutionnaire, sont en train de devenir des réactionnaires."
    Rare and very handsome set, uniformly bound at the time, complete in 9 volumes and enriched with significant autograph inscriptions by Edmond de Goncourt in each volume.
    €3,800
  30. Lui
    Louise COLET (inscribed to Teresa GUICCIOLI)
    Lui
    Librairie Nouvelle A. Bourdilliat & Cie|Paris 1860|12 x 18.50 cm|relié
    First edition.
    Elegent half black morocco over marbled paper boards by P. Goy, spine in six compartments with double blindruled fillets, date to foot, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, covers preserved mounted on guards (small angular lacks filled in).
    Rare inscription from Louise Colet to the Marquise de Boissy.
    This copy is enriched with a three-page autograph letter in which the author deplores the fact that she « missed » the addressee during her visit to Paris and outlines her plans for a visit to Italy, where they will finally be able to meet. A little spotting, a very pale marginal dampstain to final leaves.
    A rare set.
    Perfectly bound.
    €2,000
  32. Corps et biens
    Robert DESNOS
    Corps et biens
    [Flesh and Blood]
    Gallimard|Paris 1930|12 x 19 cm|relié

    First edition, an advance (service de presse) copy.
    Half mustard-colored morocco over marbled paper boards by P. Goy & C. Vilaine, spine in six compartments, brown paper endpapers and pastedowns, covers and spine (sunned) preserved, top edge gilt.
    Handsome autograph inscription signed by Robert Desnos to Colette Clément, whose name he plays on: "A Madame Colette Clément / Clément Marot non Jacques Clément (ces mots barrés) / non / hommage de l'auteur Robert Macaire."
    Ex libris of recipient pasted in underneath justification.

    €1,800
  33. Quand les français ne s'aimaient pas - Exemplaire de Colette
    Charles MAURRAS (inscribed to COLETTE)
    Quand les français ne s'aimaient pas - Exemplaire de Colette
    [When the French Did Not Love Each Other – Copy Belonging to Colette]
    Nouvelle librairie nationale|Paris 1916|12 x 19 cm|relié

    First edition on ordinary paper.
    Half red morocco over marbled paper boards, spine lightly sunned in six compartments, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, covers and spine preserved, top edge gilt.

    One top corner very slightly rubbed.
    Handsome autograph inscription by Charles Maurras : "A madame Colette Willy, en souvenir de la cocarde."

    €1,000
  38. Terre des hommes
    Antoine de SAINT-EXUPÉRY
    Terre des hommes
    Gallimard|Paris 1939|13.50 x 19.50 cm|relié sous étui
    First edition, one of 23 numbered copies on Hollande paper, tirage de tête after one copy on Whatman and 9 on China paper.
    Light brown Oasis goatskin by Morina Mongin, covers and spine with dreamlike decoration of humanized mountains after a drawing by Peter Sis, printed in brown colored film and heightened in ochre, sky-blue suede pastedowns, brown suede endpapers, the first endpaper with a lunette of modified sky-blue leather printed in colored film, covers and spine preserved. Half light brown Oasis goatskin slipcase, wood-effect paper boards lined with brown suede; a spectacular set.
    A fine copy with all margins in a handsome binding reaching back to the pilot's spirit, for whom every mountain, every valley, every house is “a landscape which could be friend or foe.”
    €15,000
  39. Documents littéraires
    Émile ZOLA
    Documents littéraires
    Charpentier|Paris 1881|12 x 18.50 cm|relié

    First edition.
    Contemporary red cloth Bradel binding by Pierson, spine with gilt floral motif, date and double gilt fillet to foot, black shagreen title label.
    A little light spotting, principally affecting the first and final few leaves.
    Ex libris of Adolphe Racot on inside upper cover.
    Concerning Victor Hugo, Alfred de Musset, George Sand, François-René de Chateaubriand, Théophile Gautier, Alexandre Dumas fils, and so on…

    Autograph inscription from Emile Zola to Adolphe Racot.

    €1,500
  40. Contes à Ninon
    Émile ZOLA
    Contes à Ninon
    J. Hetzel & A. Lacroix|Paris 1864|11 x 18 cm|relié
    The first edition of the author's first book.
    Contemporary half red shagreen over marbled paper boards, spine in five compartments with gilt fillets and triple gilt frames, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, collector's blindstamp to head of one endpaper, speckled edges.
    Handsome, rare autograph inscription to this text from Emile Zola to a monsieur Boucher.
    Faint dampstain to the first 70 pages, a little light foxing.
    There are very few inscribed copies of this text.
    €3,800
  43. Le roman de Miraut, chien de chasse
    Louis PERGAUD
    Le roman de Miraut, chien de chasse
    Mercure de France|Paris 1913|12 x 19 cm|relié sous chemise et étui
    First edition, one of 19 numbered copies on Hollande, the only large paper copies.
    Elegant light brown morocco Jansenist binding by Devauchelle, spine in six compartments, date at foot of spine, gilt roulettes to head- and tail-pieces, green morocco endpapers, pastedowns of green calf, gilt fillet to edges of covers, covers and spine (spine slightly sunned) preserved, all edges gilt ; chemise (with flaps) of light brown half morocco, lined with light brown suede ; slipcase trimmed with light brown morocco, lined with light brown suede.
    Handsome autograph inscription from Louis Pergaud to Alfred Machard : "...au romancier nerveux, sobre et puissant que j'admire et que j'aime. Fraternellement. Louis Pergaud."
    A superb copy in a remarkable lined binding Roger Devauchelle.
    €6,800
  45. Les Nègres
    Jean GENET
    Les Nègres
    Marc Barbezat|Décines [Décines-Charpieu] 1958|15 x 19.50 cm|relié sous étui
    First edition, one of 32 numbered copies on nacré Japon, the tirage de tête.
    Bound in full embossed khaki leather, smooth spine without lettering, the title of the work and the author's name in gilt on the front cover reproducing the calligraphy of the original wrapper, publisher’s name and place in gilt on the back cover likewise reproducing the calligraphy of the rear wrapper, endpapers and pastedowns of wood-grain effect almond paper, wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt; slipcase covered with wood-grain effect almond paper, echoing the binding and bearing on the covers the same features as the binding.
    A few small spots of foxing on the spine and upper edge, slightly affecting the boards, internally very clean.
    A rare copy, spectacularly and perfectly presented.
    €3,500
  47. Dialogo nel quale si ragion del modo di accrescere, & conservar la memoria
    Lodovico DOLCE
    Dialogo nel quale si ragion del modo di accrescere, & conservar la memoria
    apresso Giambattista Sessa & fratelli|In Venetia [Venice] • (Venise) [Venice] 1586|15.30 x 10 cm|relié

    New edition after the 1562 original. Rare. Brunet II, 789. Italic typeface edition illustrated with about twenty curious figures in and outside the text, notably associating objects with letters. One copy at Manchester library, we found nothing in France and Germany.


    Contemporary full vellum binding, smooth spine with handwritten title lengthwise in pen. One tear on the spine (1 cm). Endpapers restored, the title page has been reinforced with two small pieces of paper on the verso.


    Lodovico Dolce (1508-1568), Venetian man of letters and humanist, worked on editions of Italian classical texts (Dante, Petrarch...) in collaboration with the publisher Ferrari and renewed the genre which bears his mark. He translated the Metamorphoses into Italian and wrote several dialogues including one on painting featuring Vasari and Aretino, and another on the properties of colors. He wrote notably theatrical pieces. The general theme of the present dialogue is occultism, astrology.

    €1,500
  49. Choléra - Exemplaire de Jacques Rigaut
    Joseph DELTEIL (inscribed to Jacques RIGAUT)
    Choléra - Exemplaire de Jacques Rigaut
    Editions du Sagittaire|Paris 1923|13 x 18 cm|broché
    First edition, one of the review copies service.
    Back slightly insolated as generally.
    Precious and very rare autograph signed by Joseph Delteil to Jacques Rigaut: "... to MJ Rigaut / cordial tribute / J. Delteil".
    Superb dedication, at the crossroads of "isms": while Delteil is just enthralled surreal by the "pope" André Breton in his Manifesto that ranks among those who have made "act of absolute surrealism", Rigaut, for his part is definitely moving away from Dadaism following his friend Tzara.
    An emblematic figure of the literary genius consumed by drugs and despair, Jacques Rigaut did not publish anything during his lifetime (except contributions to literary journals). However, he fascinated his contemporaries, including Desnos, Soupault, Tzara, Breton and of course his friend Drieu La Rochelle, to whom he inspired several writings including The Empty Suitcase and The Wild Fire which recounts the last days of a convicted suicide.
    In his Dictionary of Dadaism, Georges Hugnet will draw a very beautiful portrait of the poet:
    " French writer. At the extreme edge of the mind, this rare writer, modern by obligation and essentially ageless, embodies both the evil of the century and the torment of well-born hearts. Seduced by the reversal of values proposed by Dada, he engages in movement with the warmth and disdain that characterizes disinterestedness. From 1920 to 1922, we find his name in Literature (...). His various writings, considerations of a general nature, or simple reflections of current events, contribute to a deep uneasiness in which the vices of time, the moral sense, and the attraction of death intermingle. A character is born, Lord Patchogue. He goes to the United States, comes back, writes, and publishes nothing. His irony, even to his cynicism, his nonchalance, conceals a despair that leads him to suicide in 1929. Some friends collect, after his death, some autobiographical pages unpublished under the title Posthumous Papers published in 1934 ".

    Exceptional testimony to the artistic and literary effervescence of the inter-war contemporary and one of the rare vestiges of the library of the mythical writer Jacques Rigaut: "Try if you can, to stop a man who travels with the suicide in his buttonhole. "
    €2,500
  50. Soleil cou coupé - Exemplaire de Raymond Queneau
    Aimé CÉSAIRE (inscribed to Raymond QUENEAU)
    Soleil cou coupé - Exemplaire de Raymond Queneau
    Solar Throat Slashed
    K éditeur|Paris 1948|16.50 x 22.50 cm|broché

    First edition, a numbered copy on alfa du Marais paper, this one not included in the justification.
    Handsome autograph inscription signed and dated by Aimé Césaire to Raymond Queneau: “Très sympathique hommage de ces bucoliques de sang et de soleil... [a very affectionate homage of these bucolics of blood and sunshine...]”
    Covers and spine slightly sunned at edges (but not seriously).

    €2,300
  52. Domaine public - Exemplaire de Raymond Queneau
    Robert DESNOS (inscribed to Raymond QUENEAU)
    Domaine public - Exemplaire de Raymond Queneau
    Gallimard|Paris 1953|14.50 x 19.50 cm|broché

    First edition, one of 85 numbered copies on pur fil paper, this one of 10 hors commerce lettered copies, the tirage de tête.
    This copy is lettered “f”, specially printed for Raymond Queneau.
    Handsome autograph inscription signed and dated by Youki Desnos to Raymond and Janine Queneau : "... La rue Lacretelle - le gras double du petit déjeûner...[…Rue Lacretelle – the double pleasures of breakfast…]", also with an inscription by René Bertelé : "... avec l'hommage bien amical du copiste...[with the copyist's best wishes]."
    A very good copy.

    €1,500
  54. Francisci Balduini Iuriscons. Commentarij. De legibus XII tabularum. [Ensemble] Ad edicta veterum principum Rom. de Christianis.
    François BAUDUIN, [BALDUINUS]
    Francisci Balduini Iuriscons. Commentarij. De legibus XII tabularum. [Ensemble] Ad edicta veterum principum Rom. de Christianis.
    Per Ioannem Oporinum|Basileae [Basel] • [Bâle] [Basel] 1557|12.50 x 18.50 cm|relié

    Third edition, first octavo published in Basel after two folios published in Paris in 1550 and 1554 for the first text. The two following texts are in first edition. Text in single column, 33 lines per column. Not in Brunet.


    Full speckled brown calf binding, 18th century. Spine with five raised bands decorated with red morocco title label, gilt compartments and fleurons. All edges red. Upper board joint cracked along its entire length. Minor wormholes on first board and at foot of lower board headcap. Three corners bumped. Pale dampstains. Minimal wormhole damage on first endpaper.

    €1,600
  57. La Décoration & l'Art industriel à l'Exposition de 1889
    Paul VERLAINE
    La Décoration & l'Art industriel à l'Exposition de 1889
    Typographie Monnoyer|Le Mans 1889|22.50 x 33 cm|relié

    VERLAINE Paul. La Décoration & l'Art industriel à l'Exposition de 1889
    Typographie Monnoyer, Le Mans 1889, 22,5 x 33 cm, Bradel binding
    First edition of 30 copies printed on Japon paper of this offprint of L'Artiste for November 1890.
    Contemporary Bradel binding of beige paper boards, ex-libris to pastedown.
    Autograph inscription signed from Paul Verlaine to Edmond Bonnaffé on the justification of printing at end: “Exemplaire de Monsieur E. Bonnaffé. P. Verlaine [Monsieur E. Bonnaffé's copy. P. Verlaine]”. Edmond Bonnaffé (1825-1903) was a wealthy collector and noted historian of art, very close to the artistic movements of the age.
    These pages by Verlaine are a critical review of the book by Roger Marx of the same name (Paris, 1890). In it, the poet discusses the great names in Art Nouveau, such as Bapst, Chaplet and Gallé. But above all, he writes his famous condemnation of the Eiffel Tower: “This skeletal belfry, that will never outlive, to the contrary indeed! the archi-centenarians of France and Belgium…”. Indeed, on 14 February 1887, Paul Verlaine signed a manifesto of protest published by Le Temps, along with other personalities in the arts and literature, including Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle, Guy de Maupassant, Alexandre Dumas fils, Sully Prudhomme, and so on.
    Illustrated with figures in text.
    A good and rare copy.
    Provenance: collections of Edmond Bonnaffé (ex dono), André Lefèvre (his sale, Paris 16 November 1966), Colonel Daniel Sickles (his sale, Paris 28 & 29 October 1992), Edouard-Henri Fischer.
    €5,000
  58. Modernités - Exemplaire d'Alphonse Daudet
    Jean LORRAIN (inscribed to Alphonse DAUDET)
    Modernités - Exemplaire d'Alphonse Daudet
    Giraud et Cie|Paris 1885|12 x 19 cm|relié
    First edition bearing a fictitious mention of a second edition.
    Bradel binding in half spinach-green percaline, smooth spine decorated with a gilt floral tool, double fillet and date at foot, red morocco title-piece, wrappers preserved, contemporary binding signed by Paul Vié.
    Precious and handsome autograph presentation signed by Jean Lorrain to Alphonse Daudet: "...qui ne les lira pas au grand regret de l'auteur ces quelques mauvais vers à intentions modernes, hommage inutile et désespéré..."
    Stamp of the Daudet library on the first endpaper.
    A very fine copy, handsomely preserved in a discreet binding by Paul Vié.
    €2,300
  60. La tapisserie de Notre-Dame
    Charles PÉGUY
    La tapisserie de Notre-Dame
    les Cahiers de la Quinzaine|Paris 1913|13 x 19.50 cm|relié
    First edition, one of 15 numbered copies on Whatman, the only deluxe paper issue.
    Full chocolate-brown morocco, spine with five raised bands, gilt rolls on the caps, pastedowns in full brown morocco, original wrappers and spine preserved, all edges gilt, double gilt fillets on the edges, splendid full morocco doublure binding signed by Huser.
    A very handsome copy, uncut, magnificently bound in full morocco doublure by Huser.
    €7,500
  61. Un nouveau théologien, Fernand Laudet
    Charles PÉGUY
    Un nouveau théologien, Fernand Laudet
    les Cahiers de la Quinzaine|Paris 1911|13 x 19 cm|relié
    First edition, one of 14 numbered copies on Whatman, the only deluxe paper issue.
    Bound in navy blue half morocco with corners, spine with five raised bands, date gilt at foot, marbled paper boards, blue paper endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt, uncut. Elegant binding signed Alix.
    A very handsome copy, entirely uncut and perfectly established.
    €4,500
  63. Manuscrit autographe sur Hemingway intitulé [traduit de ...]
    Maurice BLANCHOT (Ernest HEMINGWAY)
    Manuscrit autographe sur Hemingway intitulé [traduit de ...]
    Autograph manuscript on Hemingway
    1946|13.50 x 21 cm|en feuilles

    (HEMINGWAY) BLANCHOT Maurice. Autograph manuscript on Hemingway
    1946, 16 pages 1/2 in-8 (13,5 x 21 cm), loose leaves
    Author's autograph manuscript, 16 and a half 8vo pages, published in number 17 of L'Arche (July 1946) and reprinted, with slight modifications, in La Part du Feu (1949).
    Complete manuscript, written recto-verso, very densely spaced, with numerous deletions, corrections, and additions.
    In order to examine the problems related to the translation of a literary text into another language, Maurice Blanchot looks at the contemporary American novel and its perception in Europe.
    “Many good critics complain about American literature: they find it less than original and of middling interest for a culture that moved, over fifty years ago, beyond naturalism. They make fun of young writers who think they're being modern by imitating Faulkner, Dos Passos or Steinbeck, while for Americans themselves these writers are more of yesterday than tomorrow.”
    Thus the critic, for whom the oddities of language particular to any literary work survive translation, takes the example of a novel by Ernest Hemingway. “In For Whom the Bell Tolls, Robert Jordan, discovering the importance of the moment he is living, repeats the word ‘now' in several languages. Maintenant, ahora, now, heute. But he is somewhat disappointed by the mediocrity of this vocabulary, and looks for other words. […]. He tries to find in language links between these words and what they mean for him, his meeting with Maria, who is also his meeting with his final hour, his meeting with death. […] The word Todt seems to him the most dead of all, the word Krieg the one that resembles war most closely.” Or is it just that he knew German less well than the other languages? This reflection fascinates Blanchot: “This impression of Robert Jordan's can give us food for thought. If it's true that a language seems more expressive and more real to us when we know it less, if words need a certain ignorance to keep their virtue from being revealed, this paradox should hardly surprise us, since translators come across it all the time and it represents both one of the principal challenges and one of the foremost riches of all translation.”
    An inspired look at the work of Ernest Hemingway and the problem of translation.
    €2,800
  66. Les Premiers soupçons. Costumes trotteurs de Doeuillet (pl.10, La Gazette du Bon ton, 1912-1913 n°3)
    Bernard BOUTET DE MONVEL (Georges DOEUILLET)
    Les Premiers soupçons. Costumes trotteurs de Doeuillet (pl.10, La Gazette du Bon ton, 1912-1913 n°3)
    Paris 1912-1913|19 x 24.50 cm|une feuille

    Original colour print, printed on laid paper and signed in the plate lower right.

    Original engraving produced for the illustration of La Gazette du Bon Ton, one of the most beautiful and influential fashion journals of the 20th century, celebrating the talent of French designers and artists at the height of the Art Deco era.

    €100
  73. La Fidélité récompensée. Robe d'après-midi de Worth (pl.8, La Gazette du Bon ton, 1913 n°10)
    Maurice TAQUOY (Charles-Frederick WORTH)
    La Fidélité récompensée. Robe d'après-midi de Worth (pl.8, La Gazette du Bon ton, 1913 n°10)
    Paris Août 1913|19 x 24.50 cm|une feuille

    Original colour print, printed on laid paper and signed in the plate lower left.

    Original engraving produced for the illustration of La Gazette du Bon Ton, one of the most beautiful and influential fashion journals of the 20th century, celebrating the talent of French designers and artists at the height of the Art Deco era.

    €90
  74. L'art et le beau N°12 de la 1ère année
    Auguste RODIN
    L'art et le beau N°12 de la 1ère année
    Librairie artistique et littéraire|Paris Décembre 1906|27.50 x 35.50 cm|broché

    (RODIN Auguste). L'Art et le Beau n° 12 de la 1ère année
    Librairie artistique et littéraire, Paris Décember 1906, 27,5 x 35,5 cm, original wrappers
    First edition of this issue, entirely dedicated to Auguste Rodin.
    Text by Gustave Kahn.
    Illustrated with reproductions of Rodin's works.
    Rare autograph inscription from Rodin to his friend Bigaud-Kaire.
    Slight rubbing to spine, small marginal tears to covers, internally good.
    €2,300
  76. L'Embarras du choix. Costume tailleur de Paul Poiret (pl.6, La Gazette du Bon ton, 1912-1913 n°3)
    Georges LEPAPE (Paul POIRET)
    L'Embarras du choix. Costume tailleur de Paul Poiret (pl.6, La Gazette du Bon ton, 1912-1913 n°3)
    Paris 1912-1913|19 x 24.50 cm|une feuille

    Original colour print heightened with gold and palladium, on laid paper, signed lower right outside the plate mark.

    Original engraving produced for the illustration of La Gazette du Bon Ton, one of the most beautiful and influential fashion journals of the 20th century, celebrating the talent of French designers and artists at the height of the Art Deco era.

    €150
  83. Arrêtons-nous ici. Robe d'après-midi de Doeuillet (pl.10, La Gazette du Bon ton, 1913 n°10)
    André-Edouard MARTY (Georges DOEUILLET)
    Arrêtons-nous ici. Robe d'après-midi de Doeuillet (pl.10, La Gazette du Bon ton, 1913 n°10)
    Paris Août 1913|19 x 24.50 cm|une feuille

    Original colour print, printed on laid paper and signed in the plate higher right.

    Original engraving produced for the illustration of La Gazette du Bon Ton, one of the most beautiful and influential fashion journals of the 20th century, celebrating the talent of French designers and artists at the height of the Art Deco era.

    €120
  84. Préférences
    Julien GRACQ
    Préférences
    José Corti|Paris 1961|12 x 19 cm|broché
    Partly first edition on ordinary paper.
    A pleasant copy.
    Autograph presentation inscription, dated and signed by Julien Gracq to Professor Georges Blin: "... avec le cordial souvenir de son lecteur fidèle et attentif."
    Georges Blin, a specialist in the works of Baudelaire and Stendhal, was a prominent literary critic and academic. He was among those, including Vladimir Jankélévitch and Jean Wahl, who sat on the Sorbonne committee that examined Emmanuel Lévinas’s doctoral thesis, Totalité et infini. He also served as director of the Jacques Doucet Literary Library of the Universities of Paris (Sorbonne, 1961–1988), held the Chair of Modern French Literature at the Collège de France (1965–1988), and was later Professor Emeritus at the Collège de France.
    €600
  85. De nos oiseaux
    Tristan TZARA, Hans ARP
    De nos oiseaux
    Of Our Birds
    Kra|Paris 1929|13 x 19 cm|broché

    First edition on ordinary paper, issued after the destruction of the 1923 printing following a dispute between Tzara and the publisher.
    Double autograph inscription, signed and dated by Tristan Tzara, first to Paul Éluard – « à Paul Éluard. Tristan Tzara. Juillet 1929 » – then, after striking through this initial dedication, to René Char in September 1934: « à René Char avec toute l'amitié grande de Tristan Tzara ». This second inscription is further embellished with a small drawing by Tzara, a hand pointing with its index finger to Char’s name.

    €7,500
  86. Offered to the friend beyond words, companion of all wars and of loves as well
    Notes sur la poésie - Exemplaire de René Char
    Paul ÉLUARD, André BRETON
    Notes sur la poésie - Exemplaire de René Char
    Notes on Poetry
    GLM|Paris 1936|12.50 x 17 cm|broché

    First edition, one of 100 numbered copies on vellum, ours unnumbered, the only deluxe papers after 15 copies on Japon.
    Illustrated with a frontispiece drawing by Salvador Dalí.
    Precious signed autograph presentation from Paul Eluard to René Char : « Exemplaire de mon ami René Char. Paul Eluard. »

     

    €7,800
  87. Salammbô
    Gustave FLAUBERT
    Salammbô
    Michel Lévy frères|Paris 1863|14 x 22 cm|relié
    First edition.

    Contemporary half navy blue shagreen over marbled paper boards, spine with triple gilt fillets (slightly discolored, but not seriously), speckled edges.

    Inscribed by Gustave Flaubert to the jurist and politician from Rouen, F[rédéric] Deschamps: “hommage de la plus haute considération, souvenirs d'amitié [with my deepest respect and memories of our friendship]”.
    Frédéric Deschamps was “one of the leading lights of the Rouen bar and one of the most upstanding citizens in Normandy,” (Biographie nationale des contemporains, Glaeser, 1878). A Republican serving alongside Jules Sénard, he was also a writer and a poet; and acted in defence of Flaubet's proposition of erecting a statue to Louis Bouilhet against the municipality of Rouen. Part of the correspondence between Flaubert and Deschamps is preserved in the Institut de France.

    A handsome copy in its contemporary binding with a friendly autograph inscription from the author to a member of the literary world in Rouen.
    €15,000
  89. Victoria Ocampo's copy
    Lettre à madame C...
    Paul VALÉRY
    Lettre à madame C...
    Grasset|Paris 1928|14 x 19 cm|relié

    First edition, one of 90 copies on Holland paper, ours being one of a few lettered hors commerce copies.
    Bradel binding in half brown box, smooth spine, decorated paper boards, brown endpapers and pastedowns, original covers preserved, top edge gilt, binding signed by Goy & Vilaine.
    Precious autograph inscription signed by Paul Valéry: « A Victoria Ocampo, - a sus piès de Vd - ce petit rien qu'elle a bien voulu désirer. »
    A superb dedication that marks the beginning of the enduring friendship between the two writers, beyond all differences.
    At Valéry's death in 1945, Victoria Ocampo would recall their first meeting in December 1928 during a writers’ dinner to which the young Argentine, newly arrived in Paris, had been invited.
    A founding moment of their friendship and of the mutual admiration testified by their moving correspondence, it is against the measure of this first impression that Victoria Ocampo described her relationship with the poet and « les sentiments contradictoires que suscitèrent en [elle] la rencontre de l'œuvre et de l'homme qui la conçut : émerveillement, étranglement, admiration, accablement, bonheur. Effets, sur une Sud-Américaine, amoureuse du génie français, d'une des plus grandes intelligences européennes, lorsqu'elle s'en approcha - un peu tremblante - comme d'un feu qui vous attire et vous tient à distance du même coup. »
    There is no doubt that Valéry’s impression was no less intense, since he addressed to her, soon after, this humble dedication reminiscent of Victor Hugo’s treasured inscriptions to Juliette Drouet « à vos pieds, Ma Dame ».
    As the fallen poet’s epistolary confidante during the harsh years of war, Ocampo would pay him, at his death, a fervent homage « par-delà l'intelligence et la bêtise, par-delà la vie. Avec mon respect, mon culte, ma tendre affection si nouée à l'humain. Avec tout ce qui en moi, tant que je vivrai, ne cessera de le sentir vivant, ne cessera d'être le lieu périssable où son immortalité commence. »
    A few small spots of foxing.
    A perfectly preserved copy.

    €1,700
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