Description

ORIGINAL EDITION, press office copy printed on esparto, after 10 on Japon impérial and 23 on vellum pur fil.
Bergson, having read the novel, wrote to the author:

It is a psychological analysis of extreme penetration. It is also a most delicate moral study. You illuminate love and friendship by contrasting one with the other. And you express it all in a language that captures the finest nuances of thought and feeling.

An esteemed author between the wars, Abel Bonnard is better known today as a pen of the Collaboration, a Vichy minister and an agent of the fascisation of France.

FROM THE LIBRARY OF THE BATTLESHIP RICHELIEU provenance "Cuirassé Richelieu" at the foot of the spine, handwritten note on the 1st white endpaper "Carré off[iciers] subalt[ernes] / Richelieu / 1049".
SIGNED AUTOGRAPH CONSIGNMENT for the library of the battleship Richelieu :

For the Richelieu library, a tribute from an author who is very fond of French naval officers, because he prides himself on knowing them very well,
Abel Bonnard

The Richelieu, with its sister-ship the Jean Bart, was both the first 35,000-tonne battleship and the last French battleship. Built in 1935 to stand up to the Italian Littorio, she was originally designed only to operate in the Mediterranean - but on 14 June 1940, when the Richelieu was only 90% complete, the Germans bombarded the port of Brest. On 18 June, the battleship, still intact but still unfinished, left for Dakar. There, she was torpedoed and immobilised by the British. Under Vichy orders, she repelled Operation Menace in September, orchestrated by the British Royal Navy and Free France.
In 1943, under Allied control, the Richelieu sailed for New York to be repaired and modernised; passing under the Brooklyn Bridge forced the crew to dismantle the forward telepointer. The refitted Richelieu was designated to join the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean. She took part in Operations Cockpit, Transom and Crimson. Her crew then fought against Japan alongside the East Indies Fleet, and were present at the Japanese surrender of Singapore on 12 September 1945. Finally, between October and December 1945, the Richelieu took part in the return of French forces to Indochina.
It was decommissioned in 1961 and scrapped 7 years later.