Lot n° 151
Estimation :
300 - 400
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DUTOURD, Jean. *Les Horreurs de l'amour*. - Lot 151
DUTOURD, Jean. *Les Horreurs de l'amour*.
First edition, not for sale, bound in blue parchment-like leather. A precious copy printed for André and Simone Maurois, featuring two autographed dedications by the author—one to the Maurois couple and one to their son Gérald—as well as a touching autographed letter from Camille Dutourd to Simone Maurois, who had just lost her husband.
Paris, NRF, 1963.
In-8, half-shagreen with ochre corners, spine featuring two wide blind-stamped faux ribs, author’s name and title in gilt letters, gilt head on endpapers, covers and spine preserved (contemporary binding).
744 pages.
Slight scuffing and marks on the leather.
First edition. One of 35 non-commercial copies reserved for the author, printed on blue parchment paper from the Dujardin paper mills (marked XVII), specially printed for André and Simone Maurois.
In this novel, described upon its release as an “island masterpiece” by the great critic André Thérive, the author recounts the tragic love affair between a fifty-something member of parliament and a 25-year-old typist. “But beyond the anecdote or the plot—even though the latter is handled as it should be—what emerges from these pages is what makes works enduring: a worldview, a philosophy, a metaphysics.” (publisher’s introduction).
A copy from the library of Simone André Maurois (1894–1968), featuring her bookplate on the inside front cover, engraved by Jacquin after a drawing by Henri Mondor dated April 1935.
It is enhanced by: - a signed autograph dedication by the author to André and Simone Maurois on the half-title page, “who were the first to read this book, and who loved it; I am happy to see their names in print alongside mine and Camille’s. With my warmest regards. Jean Dutourd"
- an autographed dedication, dated December 5, 1974, to Gérald Maurois (1920–1986), the son of André Maurois and Janine de Szymkiewicz, a photographer best known for publishing several illustrated books: “To Gérald, this big book that was in our dear André’s library, and which I am happy to see in yours, Jean.”
- a signed autograph letter from Camille Dutourd to Simone Maurois (one folio, in-8, on letterhead from 63 Avenue Klébert, Paris, November 14, 1967, with a mailing envelope addressed to Madame Maurois). A touching letter written two months after André Maurois’s passing, in which Camille Dutourd informs Simone Maurois of her daughter Clara’s marriage to former minister Jacques Maret, and assures her of the ever-present memory left by the late writer: “The memory of André is constantly with us; not a day goes by without us speaking of him.” She concludes by wishing her good health at the end of this cruel year, “which is what André would have wanted above all else.”
A moving example of the special relationship between the author and André Maurois, which went beyond the strictly literary context of their mutual admiration to touch on their personal lives, as Jean Dutourd remained close to André’s son, Gérald Maurois, long after the Academician’s death in 1967.
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