Description

First posthumous edition of Jean Giraudoux's complete theatre.

Complete collection in 16 volumes:
ONE OF THE FIRST 32 COPIES ON INGRES GUARROand among these,
lOne of 7 hors-commerce ex. by name, printed specially for Louis Jouvet
The first 11 volumes contain the definitive texts of 13 of the playwright's plays; the following 4 volumes are devoted to unpublished variants and fragments; the last volume contains, in addition to The Bellac Apolloan unpublished piece, For Lucretiawhich appears here in first edition. It premiered on 6 November 1953 at the Théâtre Mariginy.
Each volume is illustrated on the frontispiece with an original composition by Christian Bérard (the last volume includes an additional plate).

Each volume also bears, on the upper back cover or on a white endpaper, theex-libris of Louis Jouvet The illustration is taken from the The School for Wives.

It is undoubtedly to Louis Jouvet that Giraudoux is remembered as a playwright rather than a novelist. When he met the director of the Comédie des Champs Élysées in July 1927, Giraudoux was working on a stage adaptation of his novel Siegfried and the Limousin. The manuscript he presented to Jouvet was for an eight-hour play: the author and director made cuts and corrections together. Once the new text had been drawn up, Giraudoux attended every stage of casting, staging and rehearsals. Siegfried, premiered on 3 May 1928, was a triumph; two days after the premiere, Louis Jouvet asked Giraudoux to reserve his next play for him. It was the beginning of a close collaboration between them all, the importance of which Jouvet summed up in a letter to the playwright's widow:

[This proposal concerning La Folle de Chaillot] reflects, on my part, the desire to continue a collaboration to which I have devoted seventeen years, the desire to maintain an admiration that I have shared with the public and which has become, for me today, a need, I mean, a duty to maintain. What I have done in the theatre so far has only made sense through Jean's work: the twelve plays I have staged. In my absence, Sodom and Gomorrah is the only work to which I have not had the honour of giving my attention.
He taught me about theatre and friendship, and he also taught me about loyalty. He often said this to me when, out of professional scruples, I wanted to leave him free to accept the increasing number of offers from other directors as his reputation grew. No," he said. - Why not? - I like loyalty." He also said to me, and he repeated it: "If you hadn't taken my first play, I would have had it performed elsewhere and then I wouldn't have done any more theatre".

Apart from Sodom and Gomorrah (first staged by Georges Douking in October 1943) and For Lucretiaall of Giraudoux's plays were created by Louis Jouvet and his troupe: from the Comédie des Champs Élysées to the Théâtre de l'Athénée, from the triumphs ofOndine and The Trojan War will not take place to the more modest success ofIntermezzo and JudithGiraudoux's writing almost came to define Jouvet's work: "The atmosphere in my home cannot change as long as I can perform Giraudoux's plays."he tells Valentin Marquetty, ".The Giraudoux class is the guiding principle behind my theatre.".

Giraudoux, for his part, mentions Jouvet's decisive influence on his dramatic writing:

"It is very often that one of these ghosts, still sweating with inexistence and muteness, immediately pretends to take on the casual and voluble form of Louis Jouvet. My intimacy with him is so great, our dramatic coupling so well knotted, that in a minute the larval apparition has already taken on his mouth, his mocking eye and his pronunciation. To such an extent that this marvellous friend and genial actor splits into two for me in his presence, and himself becomes in me a character who overwhelms me with reflections and ramblings, for whom I have found no other name, when I note down his comments, than the very name of Jouvet."

Giraudoux's death in January 1944 left some doubt as to the fate of his final play. La Folle de Chaillot planned by Giraudoux for the Athénée (in 1943, he already specified on his manuscript "La Folle de Chaillot was first performed on 17 October 1945 at the Théâtre de l'Athénée by Louis Jouvet."), the play cost a fortune to stage: Jouvet was forced to plead with Suzanne Giraudoux to obtain funding, and even placed an advertisement in Le Figaro to request a donation of costumes. La Folle was finally performed on 21 December 1945; on the front page of the programme, Louis Jouvet apologised to Giraudoux for the delay of a few weeks in relation to the date he had anticipated.

It was in July 1951, on the occasion of the inauguration in Bellac of a fountain in memory of Giraudoux, that Jouvet appeared on stage for the last time: alongside Dominique Blanchar, he interpreted the death of the knight Hans in Ondine. The commemoration, during which many extracts from Giraudoux's plays were performed, gave rise to the Bellac Festival, which will soon be celebrating its 70th anniversary.

Includes :
1. Siegfried. 1945. [1] pl. 204 pp, [3] ff, [1] bl. f., [1] f.
2. Judith. 1945. [1] pl. 138 pp, [3] ff.
3. Amphytrion 38. 1945. [1] pl. 144 pp, [3] ff.
4. Intermezzo. 1946. [1] pl. 144 pp. [3] ff.
5. Tessa. 1946. [1] pl. 226 pp, [3] ff.
6. La Guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu / Supplement to Cook's voyage. 1946. [1] plate, 199 pp, [2] ff.
7. Electre. 1946. [1] plate, 162 pp, [3] ff.
8. L'impromptu de Paris / Cantique des cantiques. 1946. [1 plate, 123 pp, [2] ff.
9. Ondine. 1946. [1 pl. 167 pp. 2 ff.
10. Sodom and Gomorrah. 1947. [1] plate, 110 pp, [3] ff.
11. La Folle de Chaillot. 1947. [1 pl. 140 pp. 3 ff.
12. Variants I. 1947. [1 pl. 210 pp. 3 ff.
13. Variants II. 1947. [1 pl. 235 pp. 2 ff.
14. Variants III. 1948. [1 pl, 125 pp, [2] ff.
15. Variants IV. 1948. [1 pl, 151 pp, [3] ff.
16. Pour Lucrèce / L'Apollon de Bellac. 1953. [2 plates, 195 pp, [2] ff.