Paris, N.R.F., 1925.
4to [212 x 161 mm] of 503 pp., (1) l. for the imprint, (1) bl. l.
Bound in brown Jansenist morocco, flat spine with the gilt-stamped title, cream morocco doublures decorated with a brown morocco fillet, dark red silk endpapers, gilt over untrimmed edges, wrappers and spine bound in, slipcase and box. (Knoderer).
First edition of one of Gide’s greatest works, “the only one of his works of fiction that the author called a novel”.
A precious copy, numbered LVII, one of the 112 printed for the NRF bibliophiles.
Even though the work bears the date 1925 on the wrapper and on the imprint, it was not offered for sale until February 1926.
A traditional apprenticeship novel, where young people gain some experience of life, the Counterfeiters is also amazingly innovative.
“Stripping the novel of all the elements that don’t necessarily belong to the novel… external events, accidents, traumas, belong to the cinema: novel has to let them there. Even the description of the characters doesn’t seem to me to really belong to the type. Yes really, it doesn’t seem to me that the pure novel (and in art, as in everything, only purity matters to me) has to deal with it… usually, the novelist doesn’t give enough credit to the reader’s imagination”.
André Gide. The Counterfeiters.
A very beautiful copy preserved in an elegant morocco binding with doublures by Knoderer, with the wrappers and the spine bound in.
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