Description

FIRST EDITION, LIMITED TO 100 COPIES on Hollande.
Linked with COMPLETE CORRECTED PROOFS, with several autograph corrections in pencil and ink.

SIGNED AUTOGRAPH CONSIGNMENT to Alfred Bougenier, a journalist and writer who wrote for LThe future of the Seine a laudatory review of the book:

To my dear old friend
Alfred Bougenier
loving tribute
Léon Deffoux

Bound with a HAND-WRITTEN LETTER addressed to Alfred Bougenier ([1] f., black ink), dated 27 May 1913:

You asked me for a few more words about this little book you're interested in. An essay, dear friend, nothing more [...] in as direct a style as possible, in which I have tried to give an impartial account of the last days of one of the old "undulating and diverse" rebels, such as all revolutions have probably produced!...
[...] Like most of us, they may be both victims and 'victimizers'. Primary cause and reflex aspect. Fat men! Their only fault - if there is one - is that they wanted to appear to be heroes. They quickly realised how difficult that role is to keep up for more than five minutes... making up for it with braids of titles and long sabres ill-fitting to their size, they made us laugh. Like an epigraph, Henri Heine's words could be placed in conclusion: "From the sublime to the ridiculous - etc".

The article written by Bougenier, the corrected proofs of which are bound at the end of the book ([2] ff., some corrections in ink), repeats many passages from the letter:

"And like most of us, they would perhaps be both victim and executioner. They were simply men with their vices and their qualities, their only fault being that they wanted to appear to be heroes. They soon realised how difficult it is to play this role for more than a few minutes, and they made up for it with stripes, titles and long sabres, all ill-fitting to their sizes, a veritable carnival masquerade. Dressed in this way, they pranced along the boulevards and in the cafés, where they made people laugh, while the simple and convinced insurgents fought to the death. Isn't the bloody wall of Père Lachaise an imperishable testimony to this? This, my dear Deffoux, is undoubtedly what led you to use as an epigraph Henri Heine's eloquently true words: "From the sublime to the ridiculous, there is only one step...".

Truffled :
- subscription form ([1] flyleaf)
- 2 press cuttings: an article by A. Freddy (Army and NavyOctober 1913, [1] flyleaf), and a copy of Alfred Bougenier's article "Propos d'un Solitaire, Psychologie du Communard", published in The future of the Seine 1 July 1913 ([2] flyleaves).

The preface by Henri Céard and the two additional short stories ("Foire aux Pains d'épices" and "Nogent-Joinville") do not appear in the second edition (Librairie de France, 1922).