Lot n° 17
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12000 - 15000
EUR
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Result
: 10 540EUR
BLOY Léon (1846-1917).
AUTOGRAPHIC MANUSCRIT, signed "Léon Bloy" (twice) from his journal Le Pal, 1885; 52 folio pages mounted by Bloy on gray stiff paper sheets paginated 2-67, with autograph dates and numbers (some minor marginal restorations), and a pasted-in newspaper clipping. The whole mounted in a folio volume, half red chagrin.
Precious manuscript of all the articles of the 5 issues of his review-pamphlet Le Pal, written by Bloy alone.
The set is quite complete of all the articles of Le Pal, except the one dedicated to Albert Wolff in the n° 5, because it was integrated by Bloy in his novel Le Désespéré (1887).
Le Pal, "demonic prose", "enraged pamphlet" of a "prodigious violence" (Bloy), maltreats most of the famous writers, Dumas fils, Hugo, Maupassant, Renan, Zola, etc. The first four issues of Le Pal appeared from March 4 to April 2, 1885, and then, due to the defection of the main financial backer, the publisher Pierre-Victor Stock, publication was interrupted. However, Bloy had already finished writing the three texts intended for No. 5: he integrated one of them into Le Désespéré (1887), but it was only in 1935 that Joseph Bollery published, in small numbers, the entirety of this last issue.
The whole, carefully established by Léon Bloy, is preceded by a beautiful autograph SENDING to his "dear Maurice" [de FLEURY], dated Paris September 18, 1888: "I give you this, my dear Maurice, in memory of last August 15 & and of several other things that I hope not to forget. I have unearthed for you these handwritten pages from a very old portfolio where the poor charming being who was my fiancée [Berthe Dumont, who died in 1885 and was the model for the character of Clotilde Maréchal in La Femme pauvre] had carefully buried them, in a shroud of iris powder, - to die for, - and what a death! She believed in me, that one, having forbidden herself to judge me, & all that came from her "great man" seemed to her to be hoardable [...] Why should I not confess that I am a little proud of this unfortunate pamphlet in which are found, I believe, some of my best pages & which was written in the throes of the most unspeakable anguish? It was my supreme hope, the only way out of this terrible agony that I have recounted & which I sensed was coming. [...] I count on you, dear friend, to do me the justice of testifying, on occasion, that I am not exactly the last of men, nor perhaps the penultimate" .../...
On the frontispiece, Léon Bloy added an illumination calligraphed and painted by him, signed, with the motto "cornua illius, cornua rhinocerotis". Bloy, who had taken drawing lessons, made a meager income from the sale of illuminations (baptismal cards, etc.). The rectangle containing the title, painted in silver, has chipped and is almost illegible.
The manuscript includes the following manuscripts of articles, to which Bloy (who carefully noted the date of each issue) sometimes added marginal comments:
Number 1 - March 4, 1885: - Le Pal, editorial: "I have long sought the means to make myself unbearable to my contemporaries"... (2 p.). (2 p.) - La grande Vermine, against the "modern journalism" (4 p.). -
Causerie sur quelques charognes. About, Vallès, Victor Hugo (5 p.). - The bloody Cabotins. Madame Clovis Hugues and her husband (4 p.).
Number 2 - March 11: - The Argousins of Thought. Arthur Meyer (5 p.). At the top, Bloy mounted a L.A.S. of VILLIERS DE L'ISLE- ADAM addressed to him, March 16, 1885 : " Le Pal is a success : but it is very badly distributed in the kiosks. And it lacks posters on the walls. [...] Then, the word Pal is illegible on the cover. It is a question of first, of all importance that The Pal is of a huge black, readable at twenty paces if necessary. This Pal is pale, - ah! ah? - on the cover, that is (don't worry about that kind pun). The Meyer is 1st, you hear me right, my friend, 1st strength. It's really something you don't forget. As for the Mulot, what a translator you are! I didn't deserve this superb paraphrase of a two-cent anecdote. [...] But I like to be humiliated like that; I'll make up for it, you'll see. The Hughes are a gem. The program is a masterpiece. I make a restriction for your tone in speaking of Hugo. Putting myself in your point of view (which I understand!!) I find that it is to vent the fuse too early. In the 4th n°, that would have carried much more "... - The Mulot, apologue. "Dedicated to the Prince of Wales leaving for Ireland" (this apologue was told to him by Villiers de l'Isle-Adam) (2 p.). - The Song of Lesbos¸ against René Maizeroy (4 p.).
Number 3 - March 25: - La République des vaincus (3 p). - "Bel-Ami!", on Maupassant's novel (1 p.). - Le Mancenillier of March 20, violent diatribe against Victor Hugo (3 p.); at the top, Bloy noted:
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