Paris, Ed. Rouveyre et G. Blond, 1883.
12mo with (1) bl. l., 298 pp., (1) l., (1) bl.l.
Burgundy quarter- morocco, ribbed spine, untrimmed, pink wrappers and spine preserved. Slipcase. Tchékéroul.
184 x 113 mm.
“Rather rare” (Clouzot) first edition of these famous short stories, of which no large paper copies were printed, the good wrappers printed by Rouveyre and Blond.
Carteret, II, 112; Clouzot, 197.
“There are copies of the first edition with pink wrappers bearing the printers’ names Ch. Maréchal and J. Montorier on the upper wrapper: the real original wrapper is the one that bears at the bottom of the upper wrapper: ‘Ed. Rouveyre et G. Blond, imprimeurs-éditeurs, rue de Richelieu, 98.’
Contains: La Bécasse – Ce Cochon de Morin – La Folle – Pierrot – Menuet – La Peur – Farce normande – Les Sabots – La Rampailleuse – En mer – Un Normand – Le Testament – Aux Champs – Un coq chanta – Un Fils – Saint Antoine – L’Aventure de Walter Schnaffs. » (Vicaire, 609)
“Since a paralysis of the legs immobilizes him in his armchair, the great hunter that was the Baron des Ravots must content himself, to satisfy his passion, with shooting from his window at the pigeons that his servant, hidden in a clump, releases at unscheduled intervals. During the hunting season, he gathers his friends together to hear stories of their prowess. Then, placing a sort of turnstile on the neck of a bottle, with a woodcock’s skull pinned to it, he swivels the apparatus, and the bird’s beak designates, at the end of the race, the guest who will have to tell a story. These stories have no connection other than this pretext. There are a number of rather cruel ‘good stories’, such as ‘Ce cochon de Morin’ [… La rempailleuse’, one of the greatest pages of love Maupassant ever wrote, is the tale of an unanswered passion that obsesses and nourishes an entire existence; Ever since the day the little rempailleuse consoled a boy of her own age by giving him the two liards he had lost, she has lived only to see again, with the same emotion year after year, following the itinerary of the itinerants, this ever indifferent boy who accepts the little girl’s meager savings and will eventually accept the inheritance she leaves at her death to the only man she has ever seen on earth. The testament’ is another page of love: the last wishes of a neglected wife, who, from beyond the grave, denounces, testifies and concludes by consecrating the only love of her life. Lastly, ‘Le Fils’, in which the remorse of reckless love takes center stage, because love can cause death and can create life, without any proportion or correspondence with the whim of a moment”. (Dictionnaire des Œuvres, II, 60).
A superb copy in perfect condition, untrimmed, in a fine Tchekéroul binding with pink wrappers and spine preserved.
Provenance: Marcel de Merre engraved ex-libris and Robert Desprechins ex-libris designed by Cocteau.
