Lot n° 22
Estimation :
15000 - 20000
EUR
BLOY Léon (1846-1917). - Lot 22
BLOY Léon (1846-1917).
MANUSCRIT autograph, La Femme pauvre et autres textes, [1890-1901]; small notebook in-4 (21,5 x 17 cm) of 110 pages, beige cloth boards (cover stained, spine worn, detached, a few ff.
).
Precious working manuscript of the novel
The Poor Woman, Salvation by the Jews, a large part of Sweat of Blood and Exegesis of Commonplaces, and about twenty articles.
"All Léon Bloy's manuscripts exist, in general, in three states: first, a first draft on loose sheets, then a first copy, on cardboard schoolbooks (this second state is still abundantly corrected and of the same extraordinarily fine writing as the first draft), finally the copy for printing" (Joseph Bollery).
In this schoolboy's notebook, all the pages are filled on the front and back with a tiny and very tight writing in black ink, with numerous and important erasures and corrections, as well as multiple additions in the margin, called in red or blue pencil. One finds there a score of articles in first draft, in particular for Belluaires and Porchers; the extraordinary working manuscript of the novel La Femme pauvre, that of Salut par les Juifs, as well as a great part of the tales of Sueur de sang and of Exégèse des lieux communs.
.../...
On the title page, this inscription: "Nazaraeus fieri volo. Qui potest capere, capiat. Léon Bloy", followed by the addresses : 54 rue Dombasle ; 155 rue Blomet ; Antony, place du Carrousel ; Antony, 51 bis route d'Orléans. On the back, draft of a letter to Léon Deschamps, May 7, 1891, about Péladan and Barbey d'Aurevilly (published in La Plume, May 15, 1891).
Belluaires et Porchers (BP) and articles (11 pages) : Bleached sepulchres (18 Dec. 90, L'Événement 23/12, BP VIII, on RENAN), L'Idole des Mouches (30 Xbre 90, La Plume 15/1/91, BP IX, on Edmond de GONCOURT), La Parabole des Mauvais Semeurs (13 Jan. 91, Journal des Tribunaux de Bruxelles 1/2/91, BP XXIV), Revanche des Lys (26 Jan. 91, La Plume 15/2, BP XV), Le Prince Noir (Bagsvaerd 5 Mar. 91, La Plume 15/3, on the death of the Imperial Prince, collected in La Chevalière de La Mort), L'Incarnation de l'Adverbe (Bagsvaerd 14 May 91, La Plume 1/6, on HUYSMANS, collected in Sur la tombe de Huysmans), letter to Léon Deschamps (Paris November 91, La Plume 15/11, on the Péladan trial) ; The Religion of M. Pleur ([surtitle crossed out: Contes pour les Morts; other titles crossed out: Le Secret de M. Pérégrin Germinal, then Un ami de ma jeunesse], Histoires désobligeantes III);
Le Christ aux Outrages (Paris 24 Feb. 92, le Saint-Graal 8/3, on Henry de Groux), le Bon Conseil (30 May 92, Le Saint-Graal June).
Le Salut par les Juifs, "commencé le 14 juin" and dated at the end "Antony, 1er Septembre 92", complete manuscript of the book published in 1892 (8 pages).
Articles published in 1892, notably in the Gil Blas (GB) (5 pages) : Le chien & le Flacon (27 Sept, GB 29/9), La Chevalière de la mort (unpublished, on the Count of Haussonville), La Fin d'une charmante promenade (GB 8/10/92, on the death of RENAN), Les Carillons de l'Injustice (unpublished, crossed out), Le fourmillement de l'Abîme (Antony 11 Oct. 92, GB 15/10, on Christopher Columbus), The Eunuch (GB 21/10, BP XVI, on Paul BOURGET), The Wrath of a Lady (GB 27/10, BP XVII), Little Shake (GB 4/11, BP XVIII, on BARRÈS).
Sweat of blood, terrible evocation of the war of 1870, the first 21 tales published in the Gil Blas from November 12, 1892 to May 19, 1893, and collected in volume in 1893, numbered in red pencil (22 pages). (1) L'Abyssinien ; L'Archiconfrérie de la Bonne Mort (published in L'Art moderne in December 1892, about the anarchist attacks) ; (2) Les vingt-quatre Oreilles de "Gueule-de-bois", (3) Le bon Gendarme, (4)
L'Obstacle, (5) La Messe des Petits Crevés, (6)
Barbey d'Aurevilly espion prussien, (7) Noël
Prussian, (8) À la Table des Vainqueurs, (9) le Ramasseur de crottin, (10) Un épouvantable huissier, (11) La Maison du Diable, (12) le Grand Polaque ; L'expiation de Jocrisse (GB 24/1/93, on Huysmans, collected in Sur la tombe de Husymans); (13) Le fossoyeur des vivants, (14) La Boue, (15) Les Créanciers de l'État, (16) Les Yeux de Mme Frémir, (17) un Moine Allemand, (18) Bismarck chez Louis
XIV, (19) Celui qui ne voulait rien savoir, (20) La Salamandre Vampire, (21) La Cour du Miracle.
La Femme Pauvre (paginated in red 1-42), begun in June 1891 and dated at the end "2 mars mardi-gras 97". Complete manuscript of this novel published in 1897, divided in 2 parts:
L'Épave des Ténèbres (35 chapters) and L'Épave de la Lumière (27 chapters): it is a working manuscript abundantly crossed out and corrected, with innumerable marginal additions, and important variants with the published text. The original title, La Prostituée, has been crossed out. We note this note at the head of chap.
(I) xviii: "This chapter cost me three days of excruciating fatigue from August 3 to 6, 1891". The writing of the novel is
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