Mallarmé, The Afternoon of a Faun, Paris, 1876.
Unique copy in sheets presenting the full text.
At the top of the first page are three words in English in Mallarmé’s handwriting
et correction page 11.
Mallarmé, Stéphane. The Afternoon of a Faun.
[Derenne, Paris, 1876].
In-8, leaves mounted on tabs, full green long-grain morocco, title in gold capitals at the center of the front cover, gold fillets on the edges of the boards and the spine which bears the author’s name lengthwise. Binding of the time.
210 x 130 mm.
Unique copy in sheets of the original edition of the poem by Mallarmé. These sheets pasted back to back on light boards present the full text, the pages being numbered like the printed version but without the preliminary leaves for the half-title, title, and justification which do not appear in the sheets.
On the other hand, these are preceded by a curious first leaf serving both as a title, a notice, and a dedication:
The Directors of Newspapers and Editors, if they wish to cite the work, have here the entire text on sheets, ready to be cut and delivered to the printer.
Offering to three friends, named Cladel, Dierx, and Mendès, this few verses (which pleased them) adds some prominence; but it is just as well that my dear publisher introduces it to the rare public of amateurs: the illustration made by Manet sets it.
On a paper stuck at the top of the first page of the text are three words in English in purple pencil (Basil from Houston) in Mallarmé’s handwriting, likely an address for sending; small correction on page 11. (Galantaris, Verlaine Rimbaud Mallarmé. Catalogue raisonné of a collection. See no. 251, p. 347).
“Rare and highly sought after”. (Clouzot).
The Afternoon of a Faun is the monologue of a faun who evokes the nymphs and the nature that surrounds him in a succession of poetic images. The whole is dedicated, in the incipit, to three friends of Mallarmé, namely Léon Cladel, Léon Dierx, and Catulle Mendès.
The poem was set to music between 1892 and 1894 by Claude Debussy, who composed the Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun, on which Vaslav Nijinski created a choreography in 1912.
