QUENEAU Raymond. - Lot 149

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Lot n° 149
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QUENEAU Raymond. - Lot 149
QUENEAU Raymond. autograph MANUSCRIT and autograph NOTES, Les Enfants du limon, [1936]; over 400 mostly in-4 leaves. Important set of preparatory notes and the only known first draft manuscript of Queneau's fifth novel, Les Enfants du limon. This ambitious novel was composed over eight years, from 1930 to 1938, and published by Gallimard in July 1938. The manuscript of this first state, and the only one known for this novel, was written between 13 February and the beginning of October 1936. In the tradition of the social novel, with a large autobiographical component (several characters embody different facets of the novelist), this novel with its permanent humour and incredibly rich language is both encyclopaedic and enigmatic. It concentrates in itself all of Queneau's world: passion for mathematics, research on language and madness, Rabelaisian aim of fabulous allegory and Flaubertian conception of the critical novel without message. "An extraordinary novel, as Madeleine Velguth writes, Les Enfants du limon pushes the limits of the genre. [...] His first intention was to create a story on the theme of the "crab" - of a man who would live his life in reverse - to integrate into it a critique of Catholicism and the society of his time, and, finally, to add to it the madmen and, through their writings, to criticize the sciences. In addition, there was an autobiographical purpose and metaphysical concerns. All these elements are present in the novel, except for the initial idea of the "crab". But the novelist created Chambernac and Purpulan, an unforgettable couple who made it possible to integrate the work on madmen into the plot. In fact, this novel incorporates many fragments of Queneau's study on literary madmen, entitled Aux confi ns des ténèbres, which Gallimard and Denoël had refused to publish in 1934. It was in December 1935 that Queneau decided to make it the raw material for a new novel and to attribute its authorship to one of his main characters, Chambernac (first called Chambornac), under the title Encyclopédies des sciences inexactes. This manuscript is studied at length by Madeleine Velguth in Volume II of the Complete Works of Raymond Queneau in the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade: "The first pages of Les Enfants du limon date from 13 February 1936, but it was not until 14 July, during a stay in Ibiza with Michel Leiris, that the writing of the book really began. [...] On September 20, he had already written two hundred and ten pages. [...] But on October 3 he notes "Stopped! Stopped! Stuck! Cold!", and abandoned his work for the first time. This incomplete manuscript, which has come down to us, gives a novel in two parts: the first made up of twelve chapters [...] and the second, made up of six chapters and the beginning of a seventh [...] contains the essential novelistic material of the first, second and sixth current books, except for all that has to do with Chambernac, Purpulan and the literary madmen. [...] Although the characters and the plot of the manuscript are in their broad outlines those of Children of Limon, there are however differences in detail. [But what perhaps most distinguishes this primitive state of the novelistic material from the final novel is a difference in tone: the latter will be light and playful, while the former is heavy and grating. There will be a distancing that will allow a tender and amused irony to replace the strong sarcasm of the first state. [...] During the autumn and winter of 1936-1937, the diary of the novel bears witness to Queneau's dissatisfaction with what he had written the previous summer. [...] Trying on October 3 to "take it all back", he immediately gave up. A severe self-critic, he noted on February 11, 1937: "All this has broken down! [...] He would return to his project in April, and in July he noted that he intended to "join the two", that is, what he had already written and a fragment entitled "Helena". Queneau will proceed with this recasting during the summer of 1937. [Raymond Queneau completed the writing of Les Enfants du limon on April 21, 1938. This manuscript comprises three distinct sets of notes, forming more than 400 autograph sheets: A. Notes on various papers, of very different sizes and types (including leaflets, pocket notebook sheets, and an envelope bearing Queneau's name and address in Henry Miller's handwriting), forming 100 sheets, mostly written on the front side only, with a few small drawings (heads and characters). B. Autograph manuscript with copious corrections, reworkings, and passages crossed out, left in draft form in places, untitled, comprising 249 leaves in-4 (mostly 27 x 21 cm), in black ink on checked or simply lined paper, mostly written on one side only, with 11 typewritten leaves.
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