Literature in French
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Literature Poems and lyrics 16th century books
Chronology : 1460-1479
See also : Literature Poems and lyrics 16th century books
Chronology : 1460-1479
1315-1323 the Rochefoucauld Grail
2010 SOLD for £ 2.4M by Sotheby's
Illuminated manuscripts are among the most beautiful objects made in the Middle Ages. They are most often dealing with Christian themes. When a beautiful ancient manuscript on a secular theme comes up for sale, it is an event.
But the Saint Graal (Holy Grail) is still better than any other secular theme. This search for truth brings into action the kings, the knights, with the morals of that time that included the courtly love. The strength of this first real novel in Western literature is precisely the fact that without contradicting the Bible it does not imitate it in any way.
A manuscript in French has been copied and illuminated in Flanders or Artois between 1315 and 1323. This specimen is known as the Rochefoucauld Grail assuming that it was done at the request of the head of this very ancient aristocratic family.
Well studied by medievalists, this beautiful book is illustrated with more than 100 miniatures and nearly 100 large initials. It is in large format, 405 x 295 mm. Somebody calculated that it took 200 cows to supply its 450 vellum leaves.
Bound in three volumes, it was sold for £ 2.4M from a lower estimate of £ 1.5M by Sotheby's on December 7, 2010.
But the Saint Graal (Holy Grail) is still better than any other secular theme. This search for truth brings into action the kings, the knights, with the morals of that time that included the courtly love. The strength of this first real novel in Western literature is precisely the fact that without contradicting the Bible it does not imitate it in any way.
A manuscript in French has been copied and illuminated in Flanders or Artois between 1315 and 1323. This specimen is known as the Rochefoucauld Grail assuming that it was done at the request of the head of this very ancient aristocratic family.
Well studied by medievalists, this beautiful book is illustrated with more than 100 miniatures and nearly 100 large initials. It is in large format, 405 x 295 mm. Somebody calculated that it took 200 cows to supply its 450 vellum leaves.
Bound in three volumes, it was sold for £ 2.4M from a lower estimate of £ 1.5M by Sotheby's on December 7, 2010.
1464 Gillion de Trazegnies
2012 SOLD for £ 3.85M by Sotheby's
The courtly romance was very popular in the early Middle Ages. The heroic deeds attributed to the knights during the Crusades become legends in which fantastic scenes mingle with realistic episodes. The good knight lived the most fabulous adventures for the honor of his wife.
At the end of the Hundred Years' War, the Duke of Burgundy Philip the Good maintains a prestigious court and is a patron of arts and literature. The prose novel Gillion de Trazegnies, composed at that time by an anonymous writer, is an amazing example of the revival of the courtly romance, with all the features of this literary genre.
The Trazegnies family actually existed in Hainaut, and the legend of the bigamist knight was told a long time before the writing of the novel. The reader is made weeping with this story of a pilgrim to the Holy Land who becomes a prisoner, believes that his wife is dead, becomes unintentionally a bigamist and is released of this accidental sin by his chevaleresque attitude.
This novel was published in 2011 by the medievalist Stéphanie Vincent, who had access to the five copies in illuminated manuscripts of the original edition, made in Antwerp or Bruges for the Duke and his entourage.
Louis de Gruuthuse, stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland, was one of the five privileged who received such a copy, illuminated in 1464 with 8 large and 44 small images. Then it belonged to Francis I king of France and to the Dukes of Devonshire. It was sold for £ 3.85M by Sotheby's on December 5, 2012.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's introducing both this romance and a Mystère de la Vengeance.
At the end of the Hundred Years' War, the Duke of Burgundy Philip the Good maintains a prestigious court and is a patron of arts and literature. The prose novel Gillion de Trazegnies, composed at that time by an anonymous writer, is an amazing example of the revival of the courtly romance, with all the features of this literary genre.
The Trazegnies family actually existed in Hainaut, and the legend of the bigamist knight was told a long time before the writing of the novel. The reader is made weeping with this story of a pilgrim to the Holy Land who becomes a prisoner, believes that his wife is dead, becomes unintentionally a bigamist and is released of this accidental sin by his chevaleresque attitude.
This novel was published in 2011 by the medievalist Stéphanie Vincent, who had access to the five copies in illuminated manuscripts of the original edition, made in Antwerp or Bruges for the Duke and his entourage.
Louis de Gruuthuse, stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland, was one of the five privileged who received such a copy, illuminated in 1464 with 8 large and 44 small images. Then it belonged to Francis I king of France and to the Dukes of Devonshire. It was sold for £ 3.85M by Sotheby's on December 5, 2012.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's introducing both this romance and a Mystère de la Vengeance.
1580 Essais by Montaigne
2009 SOLD for € 715K by Christie's
In 1572 Montaigne has retired for two years from his position as councilor in the Bordeaux Parliament while remaining in the active service of the king, notably for military operations. He is sociable without being a courtier. Aged 39, he already knows that he has managed his life. He becomes a moralist by relying first on ancient authors.
When his public engagements leave him some free time, he isolates himself in his library and writes. Gradually appreciating that his way of being could serve as a model, he will give visibility on his psyche and emotions without hiding his flaws.
He does not know if his work can be useful. Indeed no similar introspection existed in literature except perhaps the Confessions of St. Augustine whose goal was very different.
The Essais de Messire Michel Seigneur de Montaigne are published in 1580 in Bordeaux in two books often in a single binding. This edition also includes several sonnets by the late Stoic poet La Boétie, with whom he had the strong empathy that made him want to explain his own feelings. This section will be deleted in the posthumous editions of the Essais.
The best copy of the first edition of the Essais surfaced in an auction by Christie's on June 25, 2009 where it was sold for € 715K. It has retained its original limp vellum binding and is complete including the rare errata leaves.
Coming from the library of Pierre Bergé, this book was sold for € 680K on December 14, 2018 by the auction house Pierre Bergé et Associés in association with Sotheby's, lot 855.
After these first two books, Montaigne explores his ego with an increasing acuteness. It is the subject of the third book published in 1588.
When his public engagements leave him some free time, he isolates himself in his library and writes. Gradually appreciating that his way of being could serve as a model, he will give visibility on his psyche and emotions without hiding his flaws.
He does not know if his work can be useful. Indeed no similar introspection existed in literature except perhaps the Confessions of St. Augustine whose goal was very different.
The Essais de Messire Michel Seigneur de Montaigne are published in 1580 in Bordeaux in two books often in a single binding. This edition also includes several sonnets by the late Stoic poet La Boétie, with whom he had the strong empathy that made him want to explain his own feelings. This section will be deleted in the posthumous editions of the Essais.
The best copy of the first edition of the Essais surfaced in an auction by Christie's on June 25, 2009 where it was sold for € 715K. It has retained its original limp vellum binding and is complete including the rare errata leaves.
Coming from the library of Pierre Bergé, this book was sold for € 680K on December 14, 2018 by the auction house Pierre Bergé et Associés in association with Sotheby's, lot 855.
After these first two books, Montaigne explores his ego with an increasing acuteness. It is the subject of the third book published in 1588.
1697 Contes by Perrault
2013 SOLD for € 960K by Binoche et Giquello
Member of the Académie Française since 1671, Charles Perrault triggered in 1687 within this reputable company the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns, which he animated with zeal until 1694. Horrifying the 'Anciens', this clever literary reformer promoted to abandon the imitation of antique writers and thinkers.
He found a different inspiration and a great demonstrator of his theories by listening to folk tales which he adapted for introducing his moralités (according to the wording of the time). His fairies and princesses in prose could succeed the anthropomorphic animals from the verse Fables of La Fontaine.
In 1697, Perrault and his son ordered the editing as a small in-12 book of a collection of eight stories, seven of which in first editions, under the title Histoires ou Contes du Temps Passé.
Only four copies of the first issue are known. Presumably the author had some doubts about the potential success of this work. If it is the case, he was wrong. The second edition is made in the same year by the same printer, the first fakes are almost immediate, and these tales still inspire today's cinema and children's books.
One of these rare copies of the first print was sold for € 960K from a lower estimate of € 400K on December 9, 2013 by Binoche et Giquello in collaboration with Wemaëre-de Beaupuis-Denesle . It is in very good condition. The photo below is shared post sale by Interencheres on Ow.ly.
He found a different inspiration and a great demonstrator of his theories by listening to folk tales which he adapted for introducing his moralités (according to the wording of the time). His fairies and princesses in prose could succeed the anthropomorphic animals from the verse Fables of La Fontaine.
In 1697, Perrault and his son ordered the editing as a small in-12 book of a collection of eight stories, seven of which in first editions, under the title Histoires ou Contes du Temps Passé.
Only four copies of the first issue are known. Presumably the author had some doubts about the potential success of this work. If it is the case, he was wrong. The second edition is made in the same year by the same printer, the first fakes are almost immediate, and these tales still inspire today's cinema and children's books.
One of these rare copies of the first print was sold for € 960K from a lower estimate of € 400K on December 9, 2013 by Binoche et Giquello in collaboration with Wemaëre-de Beaupuis-Denesle . It is in very good condition. The photo below is shared post sale by Interencheres on Ow.ly.
masterpiece
1785 Les 120 Journées de Sodome by Sade
Etat Français
When he was a young aristocrat the marquis de Sade believed that anything could be allowed to him within the false stage of his own life. He had no consideration excepted for himself. Increasingly serious sex scandals are emerging in his wake. He is jailed by lettre de cachet in 1777 at the request of his family anxious to protect him from his own "sadistic" perversions.
Transferred in 1784 to the Bastille after a reassignment of the dungeon of Vincennes, Sade is then nobody more than Monsieur le 6 according to the number of his cell. His energy and his hate have not weakened and a liberation is unthinkable. He will never retrieve the freedom of Gilles de Rais or Elisabeth Bathory. He becomes a writer. He wants to be the most impure of all writers.
His first project of book is a catalog of perversions for which he is inspired by the narrative structure of the Decameron. In an abject absence of humanism, girls and boys are toys of torture and death for the sexual pleasure of the masters. The title, Les 120 Journées de Sodome, is an allusion to the 1,001 Arabian Nights.
In October 1785 the draft of the first part is finished. Despite his isolation, Sade fears a confiscation. He copies his text into a tiny and tight writing on 11.3 cm narrow sheets. The set to be kept in a tube is an assembly of 33 sheets glued end to end for a total length of 12.10 m. The top sheets of the roll are inscribed on both sides.
Sade had worked for no result. A few days before the Bastille day of July 14, 1789 he manages through the bars of his cell to add his vociferation within the growing popular discontent. His presence at the Bastille is considered as a threat to security and he is transferred to the hospice of Charenton without being allowed to take anything with him. He will never see again this manuscript of his most atrocious frenzies.
Long considered as lost, the manuscript is the subject of a first edition by a German psychiatrist in 1904. Recovered by a descendant of Sade, it is stolen in 1982 and acquired by a collector of erotic literature, legally under Swiss law and illegally according to French law. Its purchase by the Aristophil company with significant monetary compensation to all involved parties was acclaimed by the press in 2014.
This scroll unique in its theme, format, author and history was a major piece in the liquidation of Aristophil, listed with an estimate of € 4M by Aguttes on December 20, 2017, lot 39. Please watch the video shared by Aguttes. The image below is shared by Wikimedia. It was classified as Trésor national and withdrawn before the sale. It was acquired by the Etat Français in 2021.
Transferred in 1784 to the Bastille after a reassignment of the dungeon of Vincennes, Sade is then nobody more than Monsieur le 6 according to the number of his cell. His energy and his hate have not weakened and a liberation is unthinkable. He will never retrieve the freedom of Gilles de Rais or Elisabeth Bathory. He becomes a writer. He wants to be the most impure of all writers.
His first project of book is a catalog of perversions for which he is inspired by the narrative structure of the Decameron. In an abject absence of humanism, girls and boys are toys of torture and death for the sexual pleasure of the masters. The title, Les 120 Journées de Sodome, is an allusion to the 1,001 Arabian Nights.
In October 1785 the draft of the first part is finished. Despite his isolation, Sade fears a confiscation. He copies his text into a tiny and tight writing on 11.3 cm narrow sheets. The set to be kept in a tube is an assembly of 33 sheets glued end to end for a total length of 12.10 m. The top sheets of the roll are inscribed on both sides.
Sade had worked for no result. A few days before the Bastille day of July 14, 1789 he manages through the bars of his cell to add his vociferation within the growing popular discontent. His presence at the Bastille is considered as a threat to security and he is transferred to the hospice of Charenton without being allowed to take anything with him. He will never see again this manuscript of his most atrocious frenzies.
Long considered as lost, the manuscript is the subject of a first edition by a German psychiatrist in 1904. Recovered by a descendant of Sade, it is stolen in 1982 and acquired by a collector of erotic literature, legally under Swiss law and illegally according to French law. Its purchase by the Aristophil company with significant monetary compensation to all involved parties was acclaimed by the press in 2014.
This scroll unique in its theme, format, author and history was a major piece in the liquidation of Aristophil, listed with an estimate of € 4M by Aguttes on December 20, 2017, lot 39. Please watch the video shared by Aguttes. The image below is shared by Wikimedia. It was classified as Trésor national and withdrawn before the sale. It was acquired by the Etat Français in 2021.
#LT : Pièce phare des Collections #Aristophil : le rouleau manuscrit « Les 120 journées de Sodome ou l'école du Libertinage » rédigé par le Marquis de Sade dans les cellules de la prison de la Bastille. Estimation 4 000 000 / 6 000 000 € pic.twitter.com/z1zFkL8QsQ
— claude Aguttes (@CAguttes) November 14, 2017
1841 Ursule Mirouët by Balzac
2017 SOLD for € 1.17M by OVA
Balzac aimed to build through his novels a fictional society to express all types of aristocratic and bourgeois behaviors of his time, most often by exacerbating their greed. He is passionate about this work for which he devotes eighteen hours a day in reading, documenting, planning, writing and correcting. He wants the realism of the details to be indisputable.
A great admirer of himself, he foresees for his work the notoriety of Napoléon and puts his social classification on the rank of the scientific works by Buffon and Cuvier. According to the mood of his time he is very keen of physiognomy.
He was born in Tours : for provincial life, his experience is direct. He has met during his childhood these bourgeois, these doctors and these priests who do not understand the unpleasant character of their own pettiness. Balzac does not exclude anything from the mental environment of his bourgeois who are, depending on the individuals, either attracted, repulsed or little concerned in religion or occultism.
Ursule Mirouët, written in 1841, is the story of an innocent girl whom everyone in her surrounding manages to disinherit. Balzac is particularly satisfied with this novel which will soon become the first opus of the Scènes de la Vie de Province in the complete edition of La Comédie Humaine by Furne.
Ursule Mirouët's first-run manuscript was sold for € 1.17M from a lower estimate of € 800K in December 20, 2017 in the inaugural auction of the Aristophil collections operated by Aguttes and OVA, lot 45. Please watch the video shared by Aguttes.
According to Balzac's usual practice, this manuscript has many differences with the final published text. Indeed he preferred to write in speed and to rely upon the printing proofs for reviewing the consistency and bringing innumerable corrections.
Ursule Mirouët is one of only two first-run manuscripts from La Comédie Humaine in private hands. The other example, Massimilla Doni, on music, is a little away from the main social stream of Balzac.
A great admirer of himself, he foresees for his work the notoriety of Napoléon and puts his social classification on the rank of the scientific works by Buffon and Cuvier. According to the mood of his time he is very keen of physiognomy.
He was born in Tours : for provincial life, his experience is direct. He has met during his childhood these bourgeois, these doctors and these priests who do not understand the unpleasant character of their own pettiness. Balzac does not exclude anything from the mental environment of his bourgeois who are, depending on the individuals, either attracted, repulsed or little concerned in religion or occultism.
Ursule Mirouët, written in 1841, is the story of an innocent girl whom everyone in her surrounding manages to disinherit. Balzac is particularly satisfied with this novel which will soon become the first opus of the Scènes de la Vie de Province in the complete edition of La Comédie Humaine by Furne.
Ursule Mirouët's first-run manuscript was sold for € 1.17M from a lower estimate of € 800K in December 20, 2017 in the inaugural auction of the Aristophil collections operated by Aguttes and OVA, lot 45. Please watch the video shared by Aguttes.
According to Balzac's usual practice, this manuscript has many differences with the final published text. Indeed he preferred to write in speed and to rely upon the printing proofs for reviewing the consistency and bringing innumerable corrections.
Ursule Mirouët is one of only two first-run manuscripts from La Comédie Humaine in private hands. The other example, Massimilla Doni, on music, is a little away from the main social stream of Balzac.
1 170 000 € pour le manuscrit Ursule Mirouët, d'Honoré de Balzac lors de la vente des Collections #Aristophil chez @CAguttes pic.twitter.com/Dxa8YulBdx
— Drouot (@Drouot) December 20, 2017
1857 Les Fleurs du Mal by Baudelaire
2009 UNPAID at € 775K at Gros et Delettrez
2010 SOLD for € 200K before fees by the same auction house
In France, Charles Baudelaire released art and literature from the classicism. Originally a middleman, he put himself on the sidelines by seeking to develop new aesthetic values. His early work on the Salons of painting renew as soon as 1845 the art critic, emphasizing quality over fame.
By the same approach, Baudelaire renews poetry. He ignores the limits of good and evil, offering new sensations by approaching sexual deviancy and drugs.
In 1857 he published the collection of his best poems under the title "Les Fleurs du Mal". Of course, moralists and religious object. We are under the reign of Napoleon III, who encourages censorship, and six poems are prohibited at the first trial. The judicial consequences of this case does not go out until 1949, confirming that Baudelaire was a century ahead of his time.
On December 1, 2009, Gros et Delettrez auctioned the copy offered by Baudelaire to his legal advisor. This book contains a dedication, and some annotations made by the poet's hand correcting typographical errors. It was estimated € 120K.
Sold at that auction for € 620K before fees, € 775K including premium, it was not paid by the winning bidder. Listed by the same auction house on April 2, 2010, it was sold for € 200K before fees. According to the French procedure of "folle enchère" (false bidding), the first buyer had to pay a fine equal to the difference of the two results, 420 K € plus costs.
Another copy, also dedicated, was sold for € 560K by Sotheby's in 2007.
By the same approach, Baudelaire renews poetry. He ignores the limits of good and evil, offering new sensations by approaching sexual deviancy and drugs.
In 1857 he published the collection of his best poems under the title "Les Fleurs du Mal". Of course, moralists and religious object. We are under the reign of Napoleon III, who encourages censorship, and six poems are prohibited at the first trial. The judicial consequences of this case does not go out until 1949, confirming that Baudelaire was a century ahead of his time.
On December 1, 2009, Gros et Delettrez auctioned the copy offered by Baudelaire to his legal advisor. This book contains a dedication, and some annotations made by the poet's hand correcting typographical errors. It was estimated € 120K.
Sold at that auction for € 620K before fees, € 775K including premium, it was not paid by the winning bidder. Listed by the same auction house on April 2, 2010, it was sold for € 200K before fees. According to the French procedure of "folle enchère" (false bidding), the first buyer had to pay a fine equal to the difference of the two results, 420 K € plus costs.
Another copy, also dedicated, was sold for € 560K by Sotheby's in 2007.
1897 Coup de Dés by Mallarmé
2015 SOLD for € 960K by Sotheby's
In 1897, two revolutionaries of the artistic language manage together an unusual editorial project.
Stéphane Mallarmé is 55 years old. An admirer of Poe and translator of The Raven, he removes any narrative from poetry for developing free lines, sonority and also repetitive emotions brought by the juxtaposition of words. He reportedly told Valéry: "Do not you think that this is an act of insanity?".
Mallarmé is close to artists and had composed texts for musicians. With "Jamais un coup de dés n'abolira le hasard", he properly becomes an artist by designing the arrangement of the words within the pages. This poem is the forerunner of a great tradition by which French speaking poetry became inseparable from art, through Apollinaire and Cendrars.
Ambroise Vollard is 31 years old. His gallery in Paris is already well established and he is determined to shake up the art world by unprecedented initiatives. He meets Mallarmé.
Mallarmé authorizes a first edition of the Coup de dés without the participation of Vollard. The format of the magazine does not please him. Vollard proposes to do better. He imagines that the poem can be illustrated by Redon and chooses as printer the Firmin-Didot company.
Mallarmé is a perfectionist who requests that his typographic instructions are executed in the smallest details. Firmin-Didot prepares five successive states. The last proof is done in November 1897 but unfortunately Redon has not yet provided his illustrations.
On October 15, 2015, Sotheby's devoted a sale to the library of Mallarmé.
Lot 160, sold for € 62K, is the autograph of a preliminary draft for the Coup de dés.
Lot 163, sold for € 960K from a lower estimate of € 500K, is the autograph model prepared by Mallarmé including many instructions for the typography.
Lot 164, sold for € 123K, gathers six prints spanning the last four states of the Firmin-Didot proofs. One of the two sets from the last state is again corrected by the hand of Mallarmé for further improvements.
The project is abandoned by Vollard after the sudden death of the poet in September 1898.
Stéphane Mallarmé is 55 years old. An admirer of Poe and translator of The Raven, he removes any narrative from poetry for developing free lines, sonority and also repetitive emotions brought by the juxtaposition of words. He reportedly told Valéry: "Do not you think that this is an act of insanity?".
Mallarmé is close to artists and had composed texts for musicians. With "Jamais un coup de dés n'abolira le hasard", he properly becomes an artist by designing the arrangement of the words within the pages. This poem is the forerunner of a great tradition by which French speaking poetry became inseparable from art, through Apollinaire and Cendrars.
Ambroise Vollard is 31 years old. His gallery in Paris is already well established and he is determined to shake up the art world by unprecedented initiatives. He meets Mallarmé.
Mallarmé authorizes a first edition of the Coup de dés without the participation of Vollard. The format of the magazine does not please him. Vollard proposes to do better. He imagines that the poem can be illustrated by Redon and chooses as printer the Firmin-Didot company.
Mallarmé is a perfectionist who requests that his typographic instructions are executed in the smallest details. Firmin-Didot prepares five successive states. The last proof is done in November 1897 but unfortunately Redon has not yet provided his illustrations.
On October 15, 2015, Sotheby's devoted a sale to the library of Mallarmé.
Lot 160, sold for € 62K, is the autograph of a preliminary draft for the Coup de dés.
Lot 163, sold for € 960K from a lower estimate of € 500K, is the autograph model prepared by Mallarmé including many instructions for the typography.
Lot 164, sold for € 123K, gathers six prints spanning the last four states of the Firmin-Didot proofs. One of the two sets from the last state is again corrected by the hand of Mallarmé for further improvements.
The project is abandoned by Vollard after the sudden death of the poet in September 1898.
1913 Du Côté de chez Swann by Proust
2018 SOLD for € 1.5M by Pierre Bergé et Associés
A wealthy and sickly esthete attends the worldly salons. His ambition is to become a great writer. His sensuality provides him with a vision of life as a river that flows inexorably but is marked by memories of strong impressions even if sometimes their cause is derisory.
At the dawn of the twentieth century, that literary project by Marcel Proust opens the way to the psychological novel, closer to a long prose poem than to a true novel. In his research of every empathy, he did not reject homosexual emotion in his writings and in his own life.
His cycle of novels got a title that highlighted his literary purpose : A la recherche du temps perdu. In 1907 his plan was ready, but the writing phase will be long.
The first opus, Du Côté de chez Swann, was submitted to editors in 1913. Discouraged at first reading by obscure metaphors, André Gide refused to have it published by the prestigious NRF. Bernard Grasset agreed to edit it by author's expense. Gide soon recognized that his decision had been a major blunder.
At the end of the first print and according to the literary tradition, a few copies were printed on luxury paper for being presented to personalities selected by the author : five numbered 1 to 5 on Japon followed by twelve on Hollande.
The deluxe copy number 1 of Du côté de chez Swann was dedicated to Lucien, a son of Alphonse Daudet. Proust had enjoyed in the mid-1890s the fragility of this effeminate teenager. Their romantic affair revealed against their will by the scandal chronicler Jean Lorrain was followed by an efficient literary cooperation.
The author had included in that copy a dedication page in a typically Proustian emphatic style which had been later kept by Daudet when he sold the book.
The book was sold by Sotheby's for € 600K on December 18, 2013, lot 607. Pierre Bergé purchased the book and then managed to acquire privately its warm autograph dedication from Marcel Proust to Lucien Daudet.
Coming from the Bergé collection, the book with the dedication sheet fitted at its original position was sold for € 1.5M from a lower estimate of € 600K on December 14, 2018 by Pierre Bergé et Associés in association with Sotheby's, lot 927.
At the dawn of the twentieth century, that literary project by Marcel Proust opens the way to the psychological novel, closer to a long prose poem than to a true novel. In his research of every empathy, he did not reject homosexual emotion in his writings and in his own life.
His cycle of novels got a title that highlighted his literary purpose : A la recherche du temps perdu. In 1907 his plan was ready, but the writing phase will be long.
The first opus, Du Côté de chez Swann, was submitted to editors in 1913. Discouraged at first reading by obscure metaphors, André Gide refused to have it published by the prestigious NRF. Bernard Grasset agreed to edit it by author's expense. Gide soon recognized that his decision had been a major blunder.
At the end of the first print and according to the literary tradition, a few copies were printed on luxury paper for being presented to personalities selected by the author : five numbered 1 to 5 on Japon followed by twelve on Hollande.
The deluxe copy number 1 of Du côté de chez Swann was dedicated to Lucien, a son of Alphonse Daudet. Proust had enjoyed in the mid-1890s the fragility of this effeminate teenager. Their romantic affair revealed against their will by the scandal chronicler Jean Lorrain was followed by an efficient literary cooperation.
The author had included in that copy a dedication page in a typically Proustian emphatic style which had been later kept by Daudet when he sold the book.
The book was sold by Sotheby's for € 600K on December 18, 2013, lot 607. Pierre Bergé purchased the book and then managed to acquire privately its warm autograph dedication from Marcel Proust to Lucien Daudet.
Coming from the Bergé collection, the book with the dedication sheet fitted at its original position was sold for € 1.5M from a lower estimate of € 600K on December 14, 2018 by Pierre Bergé et Associés in association with Sotheby's, lot 927.
Trésors de la collection de Pierre Bergé https://t.co/q6hqBQSR80 @Sothebys @Drouot#encheres #auction #bibliophilie #collection #manuscrits #enluminures #reliures #autographes #Proust #Flaubert #Wilde #Montaigne pic.twitter.com/cE3vD46OJ6
— ActuaLitté (@ActuaLitte) October 9, 2018
#Swann #Proust #MarcelProust @EditionsGrasset 1913 envoi à Lucien Daudet #PierreBerge @pvgberge @SothebysFr vente @Drouot 14 decembre 2018 mon cher petit vous êtes absent de ce livre vous faites trop partie de mon coeur pour que je puisse jamais vous peindre objectivement pic.twitter.com/Egn0NQU1eg
— lecurieuxdesarts (@PresseKraemer) October 25, 2018
1924 BRETON
Intro
Automatic writing becomes a literary genre in 1919 with Breton, Soupault and their friends. It is a matter of recording in high speed the words released by the subconscious. A half-sleep or a hypnotic condition favors the process by erasing logics, will and purpose.
These young experimenters create the magazine Littérature and highlight their precursors : Dostoevski, Lautréamont. Their common point is the rejection of classical literature and especially of the novel. For the rest, despite Breton's ambition, the group's cohesion is an illusion. Have they ever questioned why readers outside their small circle could be interested in the irrational text from their subconscious ?
They had been close to Dada that vanished for the same reason. They do not have the monopoly of publishing : when Joyce's Ulysses is released in Paris in 1922, this use of the stream of consciousness in the production of a novel baffles Breton. To avoid being for or against, he does not read it.
In the spring of 1924 Breton is seized with a frenzy of automatic writing. He prepares about a hundred "historiettes" on school notebooks and plans to put together a selection in a book titled Poisson Soluble. At that point Breton finally considers that a theoretical introduction will restrain the hostile comments of the critics. During the summer he prepares a Préface for Poisson Soluble under the aggressive title Manifeste du Surréalisme. He finishes in September the copying of the 31 stories of the Poisson Soluble.
The desire for a cohesion remains ineffective. The Manifeste is a theoretical text but the subconscious had contributed and Breton does not want to rework it. In 1929 he prepares the Second Manifeste du Surréalisme.
The most important autograph manuscripts on Poisson Soluble and the Manifeste of 1924 had been preserved by Simone Collinet, the first wife of Breton, and were sold in nine lots by Sotheby's on May 21, 2008.
Acquired by Aristophil, they were listed in three lots by Aguttes on December 20, 2017. Purchased by Aristophil from another source, the autograph manuscript of the Second Manifeste is listed in the same auction. The set was classified as Trésor national and withdrawn before the sale.
The Manifeste of 1924, sold for € 1.9M in 2008, had been estimated € 600K, lot 53. The final manuscript of Poisson Soluble, sold for € 900K in 2008, had been estimated € 900K, lot 54. The seven automatic notebooks from the Collinet collection, which do not constitute a complete set, were sold individually in 2008 for a total of € 820K. Grouped in lot 55, they had been estimated € 2M. The Second Manifeste accompanied by printing proofs corrected by the author had been estimated € 1M, lot 56.
Please watch the video shared by Aguttes.
These young experimenters create the magazine Littérature and highlight their precursors : Dostoevski, Lautréamont. Their common point is the rejection of classical literature and especially of the novel. For the rest, despite Breton's ambition, the group's cohesion is an illusion. Have they ever questioned why readers outside their small circle could be interested in the irrational text from their subconscious ?
They had been close to Dada that vanished for the same reason. They do not have the monopoly of publishing : when Joyce's Ulysses is released in Paris in 1922, this use of the stream of consciousness in the production of a novel baffles Breton. To avoid being for or against, he does not read it.
In the spring of 1924 Breton is seized with a frenzy of automatic writing. He prepares about a hundred "historiettes" on school notebooks and plans to put together a selection in a book titled Poisson Soluble. At that point Breton finally considers that a theoretical introduction will restrain the hostile comments of the critics. During the summer he prepares a Préface for Poisson Soluble under the aggressive title Manifeste du Surréalisme. He finishes in September the copying of the 31 stories of the Poisson Soluble.
The desire for a cohesion remains ineffective. The Manifeste is a theoretical text but the subconscious had contributed and Breton does not want to rework it. In 1929 he prepares the Second Manifeste du Surréalisme.
The most important autograph manuscripts on Poisson Soluble and the Manifeste of 1924 had been preserved by Simone Collinet, the first wife of Breton, and were sold in nine lots by Sotheby's on May 21, 2008.
Acquired by Aristophil, they were listed in three lots by Aguttes on December 20, 2017. Purchased by Aristophil from another source, the autograph manuscript of the Second Manifeste is listed in the same auction. The set was classified as Trésor national and withdrawn before the sale.
The Manifeste of 1924, sold for € 1.9M in 2008, had been estimated € 600K, lot 53. The final manuscript of Poisson Soluble, sold for € 900K in 2008, had been estimated € 900K, lot 54. The seven automatic notebooks from the Collinet collection, which do not constitute a complete set, were sold individually in 2008 for a total of € 820K. Grouped in lot 55, they had been estimated € 2M. The Second Manifeste accompanied by printing proofs corrected by the author had been estimated € 1M, lot 56.
Please watch the video shared by Aguttes.
1
Manifeste du Surréalisme
2008 SOLD for € 1.9M by Sotheby's
Manifeste du Surréalisme, 1924 autograph manuscript by Breton, was sold for € 1.9M by Sotheby's on May 21, 2008.
2
Poisson Soluble
2008 SOLD for € 900K by Sotheby's
Poisson Soluble, 1924 autograph manuscript by Breton, was sold for € 900K by Sotheby's on May 21, 2008.
1935 Facile by Eluard
2017 SOLD for € 820K by Christie's
Poets and artists need a muse. Nusch is an acrobat at the Grand-Guignol when she meets by chance René Char and Paul Eluard in 1930. She is 24 years old. Paul and Nusch do not leave each other. They marry in 1934.
For the poet Nusch is the ideal woman whose body is confused with the forces of nature. She is the "tranquille sève nue" !quiet naked sap) of his declaration of love. While Paul composes his poems, he entrusts his muse to Man Ray, the photographer of the surrealist group.
The collection of poems titled Facile is published in 1935. Its seven double pages are imbrications shocking in that time of the pantheist text and of the 24 x 18 cm photos of the nude body of Nusch. Printed in héliogravure, these twelve photos by Man Ray mark the variety of his know-how with lighting effects, solarizations and silhouettes.
Paul receives one of the five hors commerce copies on Imperial Japanese paper. Paul Bonet realizes in 1943 a surrealistic binding by drawing the intertwined silhouettes of the hands that the two lovers are alternately posing on his maquette.
The copy has been dedicated to the poet by Nusch and especially by Man Ray who expresses in words their close collaboration and friendship. Man Ray adds silver prints of three photos from the book as well as an original rayograph in superimposition of a solarized nude of Nusch and six smaller photos.
The book was sold for € 820K from a lower estimate of € 500K by Christie's on October 19, 2017, lot 23.
For the poet Nusch is the ideal woman whose body is confused with the forces of nature. She is the "tranquille sève nue" !quiet naked sap) of his declaration of love. While Paul composes his poems, he entrusts his muse to Man Ray, the photographer of the surrealist group.
The collection of poems titled Facile is published in 1935. Its seven double pages are imbrications shocking in that time of the pantheist text and of the 24 x 18 cm photos of the nude body of Nusch. Printed in héliogravure, these twelve photos by Man Ray mark the variety of his know-how with lighting effects, solarizations and silhouettes.
Paul receives one of the five hors commerce copies on Imperial Japanese paper. Paul Bonet realizes in 1943 a surrealistic binding by drawing the intertwined silhouettes of the hands that the two lovers are alternately posing on his maquette.
The copy has been dedicated to the poet by Nusch and especially by Man Ray who expresses in words their close collaboration and friendship. Man Ray adds silver prints of three photos from the book as well as an original rayograph in superimposition of a solarized nude of Nusch and six smaller photos.
The book was sold for € 820K from a lower estimate of € 500K by Christie's on October 19, 2017, lot 23.
