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Le Très-Haut. Tapuscrit complet avec de nombreux ajouts autographes.
1948|20.50 x 27 cm|272 feuillets
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⬨ 47149
Maurice BLANCHOT
Le Très-Haut. Complete typescript with numerous manuscript additions
1948 | 20.5 x 27 cm | 272 loose leaves
A full, original typescript.
Typescript of 272 pages with several crossings-out, corrections and highlights in ink.
Unique known working document of this pivotal text by Maurice Blanchot. This original typescript was evidently destined for the printers, as shown by the several pencil annotations, as well as the author's handwritten signature on the title page, which presumably validates the corrections before printing.
If, following the example of the two novels, Idylle and Le Dernier Mot, the writing and composition of Le Très-Haut occurs several years before its publication in 1948, this typescript is probably this novel's last working and correction document; a novel that will mark a major turning point in the author's novel writing.
The numerous handwritten corrections, deletions and additions of this last and only known version, particularly show the need for clearance in Maurice Blanchot's style and narration and his meticulous stylistic rearrangements until the last stage.
The novel, mostly typewritten, is full of mimeographed pages, including the last 20. This double condition, which is found in Blanchot's other working documents, is the sign of two writing stages, the chronology of which is difficult to define.
Thus, the mimeographed pages could be the remains of an earlier version fully recovered by the author. The major part that required rewriting would, therefore, have been retyped, and the corresponding mimeographs destroyed. However, the writing quality of the mimeographs (that often were not proofread), as well as several redactions on the last lines of the typewritten pages, seem rather to indicate that the mimeographs were produced after corrections. They seem then to be more an indication of an intense rewrite of these passages that needed work. An in-depth study of this issue would make it possible to discover if Le Très Haut was constructed in reverse, starting with its ending, which was written prematurely and included without major reworking, or if it is a youthful narrative that needed, on the contrary, significant reworking of the final pages leading to this conclusion. Whichever it may be, this double condition reveals a novel that is constructed during two times and periods that were likely quite far apart, judging from the differences in style. This novel is, therefore, part of the great rewriting enterprise started by Blanchot at the end of the 1940s.
There are two types of recurring corrections that are particularly distinguishable in this typescript: deleted crossed out words or phrases “xxx” directly on the typescript; others crossed out by hand with an alternative above which is nearly always the one that appears in the published version of the novel. This shows that not only did Blanchot continue to rewrite his novel by typing it, but that once the work was finished, he would come back to rewrite it again. This stage gives rise to an abundance of all kinds of variations. Often a word in ink is surrounded by attempts and alternatives, written in very light ink and most often crossed out, even when it comes to the word that is ultimately retained. Accompanying these ad hoc drafts are the distinguishing marks of Blanchot's corrections that we see in other manuscripts: underlined and crossed out words or phrases, surrounded by English quotations or small crosses in superscript, showing the different degrees of probability that they would be deleted. It should be noted that quite often the parts of the text marked in this way survive the review process. While only having access to this final stage of the novel that is in the process of being written, thanks to the many, diverse corrections that are scattered throughout novelist Blanchot's “work laboratory,” we can access the novel and watch it take shape before our eyes.
Exceptional and unique remains of Maurice Blanchot's work on his third novel, the pivotal text of his literary work, establishing the fictional writing in the first person that he will continue until the end, and whose subject and only event that it tells will become more and more blatant as it is narrated.
Le Très-Haut. Complete typescript with numerous manuscript additions
1948 | 20.5 x 27 cm | 272 loose leaves
A full, original typescript.
Typescript of 272 pages with several crossings-out, corrections and highlights in ink.
Unique known working document of this pivotal text by Maurice Blanchot. This original typescript was evidently destined for the printers, as shown by the several pencil annotations, as well as the author's handwritten signature on the title page, which presumably validates the corrections before printing.
If, following the example of the two novels, Idylle and Le Dernier Mot, the writing and composition of Le Très-Haut occurs several years before its publication in 1948, this typescript is probably this novel's last working and correction document; a novel that will mark a major turning point in the author's novel writing.
The numerous handwritten corrections, deletions and additions of this last and only known version, particularly show the need for clearance in Maurice Blanchot's style and narration and his meticulous stylistic rearrangements until the last stage.
The novel, mostly typewritten, is full of mimeographed pages, including the last 20. This double condition, which is found in Blanchot's other working documents, is the sign of two writing stages, the chronology of which is difficult to define.
Thus, the mimeographed pages could be the remains of an earlier version fully recovered by the author. The major part that required rewriting would, therefore, have been retyped, and the corresponding mimeographs destroyed. However, the writing quality of the mimeographs (that often were not proofread), as well as several redactions on the last lines of the typewritten pages, seem rather to indicate that the mimeographs were produced after corrections. They seem then to be more an indication of an intense rewrite of these passages that needed work. An in-depth study of this issue would make it possible to discover if Le Très Haut was constructed in reverse, starting with its ending, which was written prematurely and included without major reworking, or if it is a youthful narrative that needed, on the contrary, significant reworking of the final pages leading to this conclusion. Whichever it may be, this double condition reveals a novel that is constructed during two times and periods that were likely quite far apart, judging from the differences in style. This novel is, therefore, part of the great rewriting enterprise started by Blanchot at the end of the 1940s.
There are two types of recurring corrections that are particularly distinguishable in this typescript: deleted crossed out words or phrases “xxx” directly on the typescript; others crossed out by hand with an alternative above which is nearly always the one that appears in the published version of the novel. This shows that not only did Blanchot continue to rewrite his novel by typing it, but that once the work was finished, he would come back to rewrite it again. This stage gives rise to an abundance of all kinds of variations. Often a word in ink is surrounded by attempts and alternatives, written in very light ink and most often crossed out, even when it comes to the word that is ultimately retained. Accompanying these ad hoc drafts are the distinguishing marks of Blanchot's corrections that we see in other manuscripts: underlined and crossed out words or phrases, surrounded by English quotations or small crosses in superscript, showing the different degrees of probability that they would be deleted. It should be noted that quite often the parts of the text marked in this way survive the review process. While only having access to this final stage of the novel that is in the process of being written, thanks to the many, diverse corrections that are scattered throughout novelist Blanchot's “work laboratory,” we can access the novel and watch it take shape before our eyes.
Exceptional and unique remains of Maurice Blanchot's work on his third novel, the pivotal text of his literary work, establishing the fictional writing in the first person that he will continue until the end, and whose subject and only event that it tells will become more and more blatant as it is narrated.
Bibliographical description of this copy
Réf : 47149|Sold