First edition, large octavo, illustrated with 78 engravings together with 12 chromotypographic plates by George Roux and 2 coloured maps.
Publisher’s binding by Hetzel in full red cloth signed A. Lenègre, with the "portrait collé" design: the upper cover signed Souze, polychrome, depicting various means of transport (balloon, locomotive, ships), with a sepia-toned portrait of the author mounted at the centre, and various navigational instruments highlighted in gilt in the foreground; lower cover of type "e" as recorded by Jauzac; spine decorated with several gilt and coloured illustrations; original blue endpapers; one upper corner slightly crimped; all edges gilt. HF catalogue at the end.
Some light scattered foxing.
A maritime adventure recounting a treasure hunt, leading the hero from Tunisia to the Gulf of Guinea, then to Scotland, the island of Spitzbergen, and finally to Sicily.
First edition, one of the review copies.
Slight sunning at head and foot of spine, without seriousness.
Precious signed presentation from Francis Ponge: "Pour Marthe et Henri Calet leur ami. Francis Ponge."
First edition on ordinary paper.
Half black shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands framed by gilt garlands, gilt date at foot, marbled paper boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt top edge.
Scattered foxing, a few reading marks in red and blue pencil in the margins of certain paragraphs, printed stamp of the Armand Colin bookshop on the title page.
First edition, of which no copies were printed on deluxe paper.
Half black shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt garlands, gilt date at foot, marbled paper boards, combed paper endpapers and pastedowns, gilt top edge, original wrappers preserved.
Scattered foxing, some reading marks in red and blue pencil in the margins of certain paragraphs, ink stamps of the Etienne Vion bookshop and stationery in Amiens on the title page, a library shelfmark at the head of the title page.
First edition on ordinary paper.
Half black shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt garlands, marbled paper boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt top edge, original covers and spine preserved.
Scattered foxing mostly affecting the edges.
First edition, one of 100 numbered copies on Holland paper.
Some minor foxing, two tears and slight losses to the spine.
Paul Léautaud’s handwritten signature beneath the colophon.
First edition on ordinary paper.
Half black shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt garlands, gilt date at foot, a small tear at the foot of the spine, marbled paper boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt top edge.
Scattered foxing.
First edition, published at the author’s expense and in a small print run.
A few minor spots of foxing.
Bradel binding in full paper echoing the work’s gilt checkered cover, smooth spine, red morocco lettering-piece, fragile original wrappers preserved, gilt edges, binding signed by Thomas Boichot.
Rare signed autograph inscription from Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam to the Marquis de Monthec.
Partly original edition, expanded with a preface and entirely unpublished fragments.
Bound in contemporary half black shagreen, spines with five raised bands decorated with gilt garlands, gilt dates at the foot, marbled paper boards, comb-marbled endpapers, gilt edges.
Some foxing, mainly at the beginning and end of the volumes.
Complete with the folding table bound at the beginning of the second volume.
Partly original edition, with no mention of a deluxe paper issue.
Half black shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands tooled with gilt garlands, gilt date at foot, marbled paper boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt edges, contemporary binding.
Pleasant copy.
First edition.
Bound in black half shagreen, spines with five raised bands decorated with gilt garlands, gilt dates at foot, marbled paper boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt edges.
Some foxing, mainly at the beginning and end of the volumes.
Preface by Prosper Mérimée.
First edition, one of 1,000 numbered copies on offset.
A fine copy.
Illustrated with 10 drawings by René Magritte.
First edition, one of 10 numbered copies on Holland paper, deluxe issue.
Some minor foxing mostly at the beginning and end of the volume.
Inscribed and signed by Maurice Genevoix to Jacques Gommy: "... en pensant aux forêts qu'il aime, avec les hommages et les amitiés de Maurice Genevoix."
Partly first edition.
Half black shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt garlands, date gilt at foot, marbled paper boards, combed paper endpapers and pastedowns, gilt edges.
Some scattered foxing.
Edition largely original.
Half black shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt garlands, gilt date at foot, marbled paper boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt edges.
Some foxing, chiefly at the beginning and end of the volume.
First edition, one of 60 numbered copies on pure wove paper, the only deluxe copies after 17 on Hollande.
Bradel binding in full beige cloth, smooth spine, red morocco title-piece, upper wrapper preserved, sprinkled edges, modest binding.
First edition, one of 30 numbered copies on alfa vellum, the only copies on deluxe paper.
Slight sunning at the foot of the spine.
A handsome copy.
First edition, one of 30 numbered copies on alfa vellum, ours being No. 1, the only copies on deluxe paper.
Rare and handsome copy.
First edition, one of 13 numbered copies on pure rag Rives vellum, the tête-de-tirage.
Rare and handsome copy.
Partly original edition, entirely revised.
Some foxing.
Rare copy preserved in its original wrappers.
First edition, one of 10 numbered copies on Japan paper, the deluxe issue.
Bradel binding in half chocolate-brown morocco with bands, smooth spine, date gilt at foot, marbled paper boards, brown endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved, gilt edges, binding signed Honnelaître.
First edition published under the pseudonym Cévennes and completed under oppression in Paris on August 1, 1944.
Pleasant copy.
First edition.
Illustrated with 16 drawings by Georges Adam.
A superb copy of this rare booklet by Louis Aragon, a true "anti-clerical, anti-capitalist, anti-colonialist, anti-patriotic" (Pierre Juquin) catechism for the children of the exploited working masses.
"On June 25, 1932, the Imprimerie centrale completed printing for the Bureau des éditions et de diffusion, 132, Faubourg Saint-Denis, Paris, a beautiful pamphlet, now a bibliophilic rarity [...] On the cover, a large red star - an important and recurrent image in Aragon's work - appears imprinted on children's brains. Sixteen quatrains, droll and didactic, punctuated for ease of reading, alternate with drawings by Georges Adam, whose nearly expressionist mockery, reminiscent of Rouault's paintings, overturns taboos and myths." (Aragon. Un destin français 1897-1939)
After breaking with the Surrealists, Aragon threw himself wholeheartedly into the Journal de la lutte antireligieuse. He wrote this pamphlet from Moscow and published it on the Party's presses, to ignite the fervor of proletarian youth. French poet Jacques Prévert would later follow a similar path with his play Émasculée conception. Anticlerical activism within French Communist associations was in full swing at the time: every symbol and events of religious life were reinterpreted through the lens of class struggle. "Red baptisms" were organised, forming a community of "Godless" children (drawing their name from the Association of Godless Workers) who corresponded with their Soviet counterparts.
Aragon contributed to these new rituals with this particularly radical children's book, deemed excessively antipatriotic by Maurice Thorez, which he would later disavow at the end of his life.
First edition, an advance (service de presse) copy.
Covers and spine very skillfully repaired.
Handsome autograph inscription from Pierre Drieu La Rochelle to Henri Béraud.
First edition, one of the review copies.
Bradel binding in full wood-patterned boards, smooth spine, red morocco title-piece, covers and spine preserved, binding signed by Thomas Boichot.
A fine copy, handsomely bound.
Precious autograph presentation signed by Jacques Chardonne to Henri Béraud.
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.
First edition, one of 1,200 numbered copies on alfa paper, the only large paper copies after 50 on Marais.
Spine very slightly faded as usual.
Handsome autograph inscription signed by Henri Michaux to Raymond Queneau.
Rare and genuine posthumous first edition of the first six books of the Confessions, the remaining volumes not appearing until 1789. Several other editions were issued shortly thereafter, but the evidence provided by the commentary published in the June 1782 issue of the Journal Helvétique clearly establishes that this separately printed edition, known as the "large type" issue, is indeed the very first (F. Michaux, "L'Édition originale de la première partie des 'Confessions' de J.-J. Rousseau" in Revue d'Histoire littéraire de la France, 35th Year, No. 2 (1928), pp. 250-253).
Contemporary half calf bindings, flat spines tooled with gilt fillets and decorated with beige morocco title and volume labels, marbled paper boards, all edges blue.
A handsome copy of this seminal text of the autobiographical genre, preserved in a contemporary binding.
First edition of the French translation, one of 51 numbered copies on pure wove paper, the only copies printed on deluxe paper.
Spine and boards slightly and marginally sunned, as often.
Rare and handsome copy of this work, splendidly adapted for the screen in 1967 by Richard Brooks, with Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe, and John MacLiam in the leading roles.
Richard Brooks even went so far as to film in the actual house where the crime took place, as well as in the same courthouse, where 7 of the 12 jurors played their own roles.
First edition, one of 150 numbered copies on offset, only print after 20 numbered copies.
Title vignette glued on the first board.
Text in French, English and German.
Illustrated with 14 photographs of the author performing different kinds of suicides.
First edition published in the author’s collected works.
Some occasional foxing.
Half black morocco shagreen binding, smooth spine decorated with triple blind fillets and gilt fleurons, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, contemporary binding.
Signed autograph inscription by George Sand : "to my friend Charles Fournier."
Handwritten note by George Sand beneath the title on the title page: "suite de Flamarande" published the same year and by the same publisher as "Les deux Frères".
First edition on ordinary paper, with the correct colophon dated 26 February 1926.
A pleasant copy.
First edition, one of 10 numbered copies on imperial japon, ours one of 3 hors commerce lettered copies, a deluxe issue following 6 on chine.
Bound in full sienna morocco, flat spine, gilt date at foot, moiré-effect endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillet border on pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved (spine restored and backed), gilt edges, chemise edged in sienna morocco, slipcase in wood-effect board with white felt lining, contemporary binding signed by Roger Arnoult.
Our copy is enriched with a one-page signed autograph letter by Jean Cocteau, mounted on a guard, written from La Roche-Posay in Vienne, probably addressed to Pierre Benoit, in which he humorously evokes Charlie Chaplin, his fragile health, and his boredom: "... Me voilà dans ce film de Charlot : \"Charlot fait une cure\" - parmi les clowns et clowneries du mercurochrome... Le docteur H. arrive à éteindre mon fer de travail avec ses pelotes d'épingles aquatiques. Mon ventre gargouille. Si tu venais ce serait une très bonne cure. Que penses-tu de cette publicité pour La Roche : La Roche source d'ennuis."
A handsome copy, finely bound by Roger Arnoult, a graduate of the École Estienne, active until 1980, who collaborated with and worked for the foremost binders of his time such as René Aussourd, Anthoine-Legrain, Paul Bonet, Georges Cretté, Pierre-Lucien Martin...
First edition, one of 25 numbered copies on bouffant vellum paper from the Salzer mills, ours being No. 1, the only deluxe paper issue.
Handsome copy of this work awarded the Grand Prix du Roman of the Académie française.
First edition, one of 500 numbered copies on pure wove paper.
Bound in full sienna morocco, flat spine with a slight snag at head, date gilt at foot, moiré endpapers and pastedowns, single gilt fillet framing the pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved, gilt edges, chemise edged in sienna morocco, slipcase of wood-grained boards lined with white felt, contemporary binding signed by Roger Arnoult.
Our copy is enriched with a signed autograph letter, one page, by Jean Cocteau mounted on a tab, dated April 1959, probably addressed to Pierre Benoit: "Nôtre Pierre fantôme... c'est autour de votre souvenir qu'on se réunit. C'est une chaîne bien étonnante que celle de cette affreuse et délicieuse cabane. Pensez moi. Je pense à vous. Je vous aime et je me résigne à vous aimer en rêve."
A fine copy, handsomely bound by Roger Arnoult, a graduate of the École Estienne, active until 1980, who worked with and for the greatest binders of his time such as René Aussourd, Anthoine-Legrain, Paul Bonet, Georges Cretté, Pierre-Lucien Martin...
First edition, one of 95 copies on pur fil, the only deluxe issue after 45 copies on Hollande.
A slight vertical crease on the front cover.
A handsome copy.
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.
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."
First edition, one of numbered copies on alfa.
A good copy.
Autograph inscription from Irène Némirovsky to monsieur Maier.
