La tour enrichie de deux lettres manuscrites : "ma situation financière chez Gallimard est très mauvaise..."

First edition, one of the review copies.

Dampstaining and a restoration to the spine, scuffing to the upper edge of the front wrapper, paper browned.

Our copy is enriched with two autograph letters signed by Hélène Bessette to a literary critic at Le Figaro, probably Claude Mauriac, concerning her recently published novel "La tour".

In the first letter, dated 30 April 1959, Hélène Bessette asks her correspondent to write a review of La Tour.

In the second, dated 13 May, the author expresses her pleasant surprise at having read in Le Figaro that her novel had attracted her correspondent's attention, while taking issue with what she regarded as his partisan critical stance: "Mais pourquoi parlez-vous de mes "fervents" défenseurs et de votre "allergie". Ne peut-il pas y avoir de critique indépendante de sympathie ou d'anthipathie, des émotions et des goûts personnels..."