Romanticism
One of only 50 copies from the much sought-after first edition of Joubert’s Pensées,
printed by Chateaubriand, the author’s intimate friend,
and saved for his nearest and dearest.
JOUBERT, Joseph. Recueil des pensées de M. Joubert.
Paris, Imprimerie Le Normant, 1838.
8vo [200 x 125 mm], 394 pp., (1) bl.l. Bound in contemporary blue half-calf, flat spine.
Very rare first edition, one of only very few copies printed. Joubert died in 1824 and on Mrs. Joubert’s request, Chateaubriand made a selection among the author’s papers in order to publish the present collection that was distributed to his friends. This first edition is very rare.
(Escoffier, Le Mouvement romantique, p. 294, Clouzot 161).
Very rare first edition limited to 50 copies printed.
The owner of the present copy had the Sentiments de Napoléon sur la divinité de Jésus-Christ by the Chevalier de Beauterne bound at the end of his volume. This owner also wrote on the first endleaf a long bibliographical note about this rare edition of Joubert’s works.
A fine copy saved for one of the author’s friends, without foxing, preserved in its contemporary half-binding.
Provenance: ex libris Elie Petit.
The only copy of this work recorded in ABPC was sold for 23 000 F at Sotheby’s Monaco in 1989, that is to say 3 500 € 18 years ago.
Among French institutions, the B.n.F. is the only one to own a copy of this first edition.
OCLC doesn’t list any copy.
Price: € 7 500
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First edition of this sought-after work by Victor Hugo,
preserved in a fine contemporary binding in green half-shagreen.
HUGO, Victor. Œuvres complètes de Victor Hugo. Poésie. VII. Les Rayons et les Ombres.
Paris, Delloye, Libraire, 1840.
8vo [210 x 133 mm], (2) ff., xiii pp., (1) l., 389 pp. Bound in contemporary green half-shagreen, spine ribbed and decorated with gilt fillets, sprinkled edges.
First edition of this rare and sought-after work, one of only 1500 copies printed. (Carteret).
Escoffier, 1392 ; Clouzot p. 147 ; Catalogue Rothschild, 876 ; Bulletin Morgand et Fatout, 11204 ; Carteret, I, p. 412.
There were no large-paper copies printed.
A very pure copy of this rare and sought-after literary first edition, preserved in its original green half-shagreen.
Among French institutions, only 2 own this original edition.
Price: € 3 500
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« Very rare » first edition of La Bague d’Annibal by Barbey d’Aurevilly,
one of only 15 copies printed on color paper, this one on green paper.
BARBEY D’AUREVILLY, Jules. La Bague d’Annibal.
Paris, Duprey, 1843.
16mo [145 x 107 mm] of (8) pp. for the half-title, the title, the dedication; 127 pp., (1) p. Printed on green paper.
Preserved in its contemporary sea green boards with floral patterns, flat spine, with brown morocco lettering piece, green edges.
« Very rare » first edition of this account of youth by Barbey d’Aureyvilly, of which 150 copies were printed.
Clouzot p.37; Carteret, I, 102; Vicaire, Manuel de l’amateur de livres du XIXe siècle, I, 289; Rahir, La Bibliothèque de l’amateur, 307; Bibliothèque De Backer 1885.
The present copy is one of only 15 very precious copies printed on color paper, this one on green paper.
« Account of youth by Barbey d’Aureyvilly which summarizes maybe better than any other the characteristics and the worth of the narrator’s art. Published in 1843, it is composed of 151 little chapters (that he names “stanza”) of epigrams […]. With a romantic theme, the original feature of Barbey d’Aureyvilly adjusted many brilliant, caustic, ironic, sentimental, cynical and poetical variations with panache and a sense of moderation that you cannot find in any of his other works. » (Dictionnaire des Œuvres, I, 369).
Clouzot describes this edition as « very rare » (p.37).
A fine copy of this rare literary first edition, one of 15 printed on color paper and preserved in its contemporary elegant sea green boards with floral patterns.
Only one copy of this first edition printed on color paper has been recorded on the public market since 1975, it was Martin’s copy which was sold for 20,000 F (that is to say 3,000 €) by Sotheby’s Monaco on October 16th 1989, 20 years ago.
Provenance: from Amédée Trouillard’s collection with his ex libris on the paste-down as well as his stamp on the endpaper.
Price: € 7 000
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Rare pre-first edition of the “Mémoires d’Outre-tombe”, contemporary bound in red half-morocco.
CHATEAUBRIAND, François René de. Mémoires d’Outre-tombe.
Paris, La Presse, 21 octobre 1848 – 4 juillet 1850.
Oblong folio [420 x 196 mm], 422 pp. Bound in contemporary red half-morocco, flat spine.
Rare pre-first edition of Chateaubriand’s autobiographical masterpiece.
It came out in the form of serial stories in « La Presse » three months only after the author’s death, from the 21st of October 1848 to the 4th of July 1850.
Chateaubriand’s Memoirs are divided into 4 parts: the first one, the youth, from 1768 to 1800, the second part deals with his literary career, from 1800 to 1814. His political career occupies the years 1814-1830, and the Memoirs end with a recap of his life.
That’s definitely one of the most important texts from 19th Century French literature.
A fine complete copy with all the issues, preserved in a fresh contemporary half-morocco binding.
Price: € 3 900
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Victor Hugo’s poetry in politics’ service.
Guernesey, 1867.
HUGO, Victor. La Voix de Guernesey.
Guernesey, de l’imprimerie de T.-M. Bichard, 1867.
32mo [127 x 90 mm] of 16 pp. printed on very thin paper. Bound in red half morocco, flat spine with gilt title, date gilt-stamped on the foot of the spine. 20th century binding signed by Le Douarin.
Rare first edition printed to be illegally sent to France.
Clouzot p. 92; Carteret, I, 423.
« Quite rare. Printed on silk paper to be illegally sent to France. » (Clouzot)
« There is every indication that it is this edition, printed on very thin paper, without place or date, which has been sent under cover to France ». (Carteret).
« In 1867, Garibaldi, encouraged since a long time by Victor Hugo, takes the initiative in putting an end to the temporal power of the Pope and to give back Rome to the almost unified Italy. But France still protects the Pope, and is not ready to let the initiative to Garibaldi: the latter is arrested at the end of September, then placed under house arrest, at home in Caprera, a small island of the north-east of Sardinia. However he manages to escape and with four thousand men, launches an offensive on Rome at the end of October. Napoleon III decides to send a division, led by the general de Failly, to protect the Papal States: it disembarks on October 28th in Civitavecchia. Much larger and better equipped than Garibaldi’s troops, it wins a riskless victory in Mentana, a small town to the east of Rome, on November 3rd and 4th: six hundred Italians are killed, compared to twenty Papal soldiers and two French soldiers. Garibaldi, arrested again is sent back to Caprera.
When Victor Hugo learns the disaster of Mentana, he writes in three days a long poem that he entitles La Voix de Guernesey. 326 verses in three days, it is a good average. Working on ‘L’Homme qui rit’, Victor Hugo was in a prose period, and according to the chronology, had not written poems in four months. In his agenda, he emphasizes discreetly this feat: ‘ – I ended today on November 18th the thing entitled La Voix de Guernesey. November 16th. 17th. 18th. Three days.’ […]
On December 11th, a run of 500 copies printed at Thomas Mauger Bichard’s are brought to Victor Hugo. The pamphlet, without wrappers, that has for sole title La Voix de Guernesey, is a 32mo of 16 pages; at the verso of the title is the following inscription: De l’Imprimerie de T.-M. Bichard, rue du Bordage, Guernesey. One hundred copies in gallery proof copies printed in Guernesey and that Victor Hugo names the proofs have been sent to Brussels on November 23rd and will be used as example for the publication of La Voix de Guernesey in the newspapers. […]
After the exile, Victor Hugo will not ever integrate ‘La Voix de Guernesey’ into a poem collection. He will not publish it again before the publication of the second part of Actes et paroles, in 1875; taking up the section VIII of the year 1867, it will be renamed « Mentana ». But this publication will not be complete, the last ten verses of the fifth section, particularly anticlerical, being replaced by lines of dots. It is not until 1883 and the second part of Actes et paroles so that La Voix de Guernesey finally reappears in its entirety.
This piece has an obvious political status. The poem is divided in eight parts of unequal sizes but of similar construction, alexandrine blocks separated by a few line breaks:
I/ Mentana après la bataille, férocité du pape, honte des Français; II/ Responsabilité et hypocrisie du pape; III/ Règne du mal sur la terre, confusion du bien et du mal; IV/ Cynisme de la société et du pape; V/ Invitation de Victor Hugo à Garibaldi; VI/ Ce que Garibaldi aurait pu faire pour l’Italie; VII/ Le vrai responsable: Napoléon III, contraste entre la fête impériale et le champ de bataille; VIII/ Appel au réveil du peuple. »
(Claude Millet, Hugo et la guerre, Paris-2002, pp. 208-212).
At the end the work is dated: « Hauteville House, Novembre 1867 ». Hauteville House is the house of exile that Victor Hugo bought for himself in Guernesey in 1856.
An interesting copy of this fragile pamphlet in which Hugo asserts his political commitment, one of the rare copies which have come down to us.
Our researches allowed us to locate only 3 copies in all the public libraries of the world: in France, only the B.n.F. owns one, another one is preserved at the British Library, and a last one at the Yale University Library.
Price: € 3 000
