Les Esprits

First edition of Albert Camus's theatrical adaptation, one of 65 numbered copies on pur fil paper, constituting the deluxe issue.
Bradel-style binding in bronze-coloured half box calf, boards covered with abstract-patterned paper, smooth spine, original wrappers and spine preserved, binding signed by Thomas Boichot.

Les Esprits has its roots in Camus's early theatrical career: he first adapted the play in 1940 for the Théâtre de l’Équipe, the company he directed in Algiers, and it was performed in Algeria in 1946. He revised it for the Angers Festival in June 1953, personally taking over the productions prepared by Marcel Herrand, who had died just days before the premiere. Alongside it, Camus staged his translation of Calderón's La Dévotion à la croix. First published in 1579, Larivey's comedy, freely adapted from Lorenzino de' Medici's Aridosia, owes its lasting reputation to Molière. In his foreword, Camus describes it as « le modèle que prit Molière pour écrire son Avare », containing « le fameux monologue, que Molière modifia à peine ». Condensing the original five acts into three, Camus brings out the play's commedia dell'arte spirit, recognising in Larivey's characters « d’authentiques figures d’arlequins et de ruffians » merely disguised under different names. In doing so, he follows in the footsteps of Jacques Copeau, his theatrical mentor.

Less of an anomaly than it might initially seem, this early theatrical venture, infused with exuberance and playful lightness, could well have served as a perfect prelude to Camus's cycle of the Absurd, had he chosen to acknowledge it as such!