Original Edition
of this aba0rare and esteemed work considered to contain the finest tales of the author bb.
Beautiful copy in large margins preserved in its contemporary binding.
Daudet, Alphonse. Lettres de mon moulin. Impressions et souvenirs.
Paris, J. Hetzel, s.d. [1869].
In-12 of (2) ff., 302 pp. Bound in half green shagreen, spine with raised bands richly decorated, top edge gilt on witnesses. Contemporary binding.
180 x 113 mm.
Original edition of this work by Alphonse Daudet ab0very rare and much sought afterbb (Clouzot, 44).
Carteret, I, 191; Vicaire, III, 37; Backer Library 2069; Talvart, IV, 13.
ab0Rare and esteemed book considered to contain the finest tales of the authorbb (Carteret).
No large paper was drawn.
ab0Collection of tales by Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897) who founded, as everyone knows, the author’s reputation. It announces the various novels that Daudet would soon devote to Provence and which are the best of his work. A faithful child of Provence, Daudet was until his death afflicted with nostalgia, to the point of feeling in Paris like an exile. Always passionate about southern life, he delighted in writing about its smallest aspects: prose ballads, naive stories, parables, fantastic and humorous tales, without forgetting the landscape: Daudet excels in making the most of everything. Some preamble in the form of a bill of sale informs us that the poet acquired an old Provençal mill to give full rein to his dreams. It is there that he will scribble the thirty Letters composing the volume. Besides ‘l’Arlésienne,’ the most famous of these tales are: ‘La chèvre de Monsieur Seguin,’ ‘Le secret de maître Cornille,’ ‘La mule du pape,’ ‘Le curé de Cucugnan,’ ‘Le sous-préfet aux champs,’ ‘La légende de l’homme à la cervelle d’or’… What is most appreciated here is an incomparable mix of wit, spirit, and emotion. But their primary quality will remain the sympathy with which the author attaches himself to the humble, animals, and plants, with an unwavering solicitude. The work is that of an ‘artisan’ who, with a single stroke of utmost delicacy, can create a climate and outline a character whose relief will allow him to remain legendary. It is this simplicity and art of never ‘pressing’ on everything that make him one of our greatest storytellersbb. (Dictionnaire des Œuvres, IV, 172).
ab0Les Lettres de mon moulin appeared in successive series between August 1866 and October 1869. The originality of this collection of nearly thirty texts remains today masked by the fame of some of them…
Les Lettres de mon moulin are characterized, in fact, by an overall dark, sometimes tragic tone. The brief story of L’Arlésienne, popularized in its scenic version by Bizet’s music, is its most relentless illustration; (…) it is the infinite variety of Les Lettres de mon moulin that deserves the most to be highlighted, and that best justifies recommending reading them in fullbb (En Français dans le texte, n°291).
Beautiful copy in large margins preserved in its contemporary binding.
We have been able to locate only 5 copies of this rare original in the entirety of French Institutions: at the B.n.F, in the Libraries of Dijon, Pau and Clermont-Ferrand and at the Institut de France in Paris.
