Description
FIRST EDITION.
ONE OF 150 NUMBERED COPIES ON HOLLANDE (this one n°152), 2nd paper after 5 Japon.
This novel, the author's last completed work, appeared in serial form in the Revue des deux Mondes in May and June 1890.
SIGNED AUTOGRAPH CONSIGNMENT to Maurice Debove (1845-1920), one of the doctors who treated Maupassant when his health deteriorated considerably in 1891:
to Professor / Maurice Debove, offered / with many thanks / Guy de Maupassant
A pupil of Jean-Martin Charcot and a specialist in stomach diseases, Georges Maurice Debove (1845-1920) was also interested in tuberculosis and syphilis, from which Maupassant suffered. From 1884 to 1891, he practised at the Tournelles hospital, before becoming Dean of the Paris Faculty of Medicine from 1901 to 1907. We know of a letter sent from Paris in which Maupassant recalls Dr Debove's treatments: "The action of the cocaine injection is not yet complete - it was given high up, against the sinuses, and I still have hallucinations, like in a dream, when I close my eyes wide awake. You would have laughed to see the look on Mr Debove's face as he listened to me.." (Cogny, Pierre and Rancoeur, René. "Nineteen unpublished letters from Guy de Maupassant to Docteur Grancher. Literary Review of French History74th year, no. 2, 1974. p. 268)
Maupassant had this copy decorated with an elegant Jansenist binding with the figure "D" repeated in the spandrels on the boards, executed by R. Petit. A copy with a similar binding is known from Our Heart made out to the figure of the doctor Émile Magitot.
A fine copy with full margins, from the Sickles collection (IV, n°1290 - 9&10 November 1990).
Vintage binding signed "E. Petit". Full brown morocco, spine ribbed and decorated with cold filets, gilt title, cold framing on the covers with 4 irons with the gilt numeral "D" placed in spandrels, double gilt fillet on the edges, inner gold roulette, gilt head, bookmark, bordered slipcase. Spine slightly oiled. Smudging on the title page.
