HUYSMANS Joris-Karl (1848-1907).

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Lot n° 115
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Estimation :
2500 - 3000 EUR
HUYSMANS Joris-Karl (1848-1907).
autograph manuscript of the chapter VII of L'Oblat, [1903]; 19 folios in-fol. (30 x 22 cm) written on the front, plus 2 pages on an in-4 sheet mounted on tabs, all bound in an in-fol. volume, half maroon morocco with corners, spine ribbed and threaded and mosaiced in gray, orange title-pieces, simple and dotted fillets in leather border on the boards, gilt head (Gruel). Complete working manuscript of chapter VII of L'Oblat. Published in 1903 by Stock, L'Oblat is the last part, after En route and La Cathédrale, of the famous trilogy relating, through the character of Durtal, the conversion of the author. Huysmans himself, retired near the Benedictines of Ligugé, made his profession of oblate in March 1901. Durtal left Chartres for the monastery of the Val des Saints; he finds in the Benedictines an asylum that suits his soul and his intellectual preoccupations. He describes with exaltation the ceremonies of the abbey, the liturgy, the daily life of the monks... Chapter VII describes life in the Val des Saints in winter, matins in the cold, a conversation between Durtal and Dom Felletin, his confessor, and the Christmas ceremonies; the chapter ends with an evocation of the thaumaturge monk Paul de Moll. We quote the first lines: "Winter had come; the cold was terrible in the Val des Saints. In spite of its chimneys stuffed with logs and the blooming of its gladioli of fire which grew, while singing, in ashes, the house was cold, because the breeze penetrated by all the interstices of the crossings and the doors. The padding, the screens remained vain; while one grilled the legs, the back froze. It would be necessary to seal all the openings, to seal them, as well as bottles, with wax in which one would have melted tallow, growled Durtal; and Mrs Bavoil answered placidly: You caulk yourselves in blankets, there is no other practical means to warm yourselves, here; and she gave the example, accumulating on her skirts bells, wrapping her head in heaps of caps and fichus; one did not see any more but the end of her nose; she had the air of a Samoyed; she missed only the skates which she had replaced by enormous clogs with the turned up beak like a prow of boat"... The manuscript, which presents variants with the final text, is written in brown ink on the front of lined sheets of paper paginated in red pencil from 103 to 120. The number of chapter VII is written in green pencil. There are numerous erasures and corrections, either in pen and ink or in the line spaces, as well as marginal additions; a more important addition, on f. 110, is written on a small inserted sheet; an added sheet (111²) gives an alternative version of six paragraphs. Some passages are crossed out in blue pencil.
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