Le Grand Meaulnes

Name: Le Grand Meaulnes
SKU: 29982
Author: Alain‑Fournier

Paris, Émile-Paul frères, (September) 1913.

1 vol. (115 x 180 mm) of 366 p. and 1 f. Half red morocco with corners, spine with raised bands, gilt title, gilt top edge, date gilt at foot, original wrappers and spine preserved (binding signed by Alix).

First edition. Copy of the first printing [15822-9-13], printed on satin-finish alfa paper, with the wrapper in the first state [15824-10-13]. It bears the number 247, stamped by hand-numbering machine. It does indeed have the misprint on p. 133 in chapter II, here [chapter I]; the error was corrected in the course of the first printing of the first thousand copies.

Inscribed and signed: “à Madame Révelin, en affectueux hommage H. Alain-Fournier. 13 novembre 1913.”

Noémi Révelin held a literary salon on the Place du Panthéon, regularly attended by Paul Valéry; the maternal grandmother of Roland Barthes, she had interceded with Valéry to obtain a scholarship for her husband, the philosophy professor Paul Révelin, who died in 1922.

The novel appeared in pre-publication in La Nouvelle Revue française, nos. 55 to 59 (from 1 July to 1 November 1913), in five instalments totaling 260 pages of text. The publishing contract was signed on 15 September 1913, for publication by Éditions Émile-Paul, 100 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, in October.

The book was submitted to the Goncourt jury, who ultimately awarded the prize to Marc Elder for Le Peuple de la mer. Le Grand Meaulnes (pronounced “Mône”) only truly took flight at the end of the year, notably after a magnificent article by Rachilde published on 16 December in the Mercure de France. The praise prompted a warm letter of thanks from Alain-Fournier, ending with these words: “Il n’est pas une phrase qui ne précise de la façon la plus délicate et la plus tendre et la plus rigoureuse non pas hélas ! ce que j’ai fait mais ce que je pensais faire. Si le rustique Grand Meaulnes osait, il vous demanderait la permission de vous embrasser.”

A copy of the first printing, with an inscription strictly contemporary with the book’s publication.

Le Grand Meaulnes was printed in 1,000 copies on satin-finish vellum (some of them faulty at p. 133), with 10 [6] copies on green paper as the deluxe issue. A further 30 copies (10 on Japan paper and 20 on Hollande) were printed in February 1914.

Le Grand Meaulnes was adapted for the screen, after several earlier attempts, by Jean-Gabriel Albicocco in 1967. The film is a very faithful adaptation of the novel: this was a sine qua non condition imposed by Alain-Fournier’s sister, Isabelle Rivière, who then held the rights and had previously turned down several adaptation proposals. The film is moreover dedicated to her.

Rare with an inscription.

Wrappers and spine worn, otherwise a good copy.

#29982

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