Les Balances
Signed presentation inscription: “Bien affectueux souvenir de G. Courteline à Stock.”
Autograph note of 11 lines in ink: “Vous m'excuserez, mon cher Stock, de vous fausser compagnie cette fois-ci, mais Flammarion m'a demandé de publier Les Balances et bien qu'il ne soit pas organisé comme vous pour l'édition des pièces de théâtres, je n'ai pas voulu lui refuser, étant en affaires avec lui depuis quelque chose comme 16 ans. Ce sera pour un autre jour. Bien à vous G. Courteline.”
Georges Courteline described himself as a shrewd observer of everyday life. Working in the naturalist tradition of Diderot and Zola, his early plays were staged by André Antoine, founder of the Théâtre Libre, an innovative theatrical movement created to open the stage to young authors.
It was Antoine himself who staged Les Balances, a play that brings together all of Courteline’s favorite themes; it was first performed on 26 November 1901. When Courteline later decided to gather his works together, he turned to his regular publisher, Flammarion, and in 1912 was working on the publication of his complete works. Yet Courteline had long been on friendly terms with the publisher Pierre-Victor Stock (to whom this copy is inscribed), heir to the celebrated Stock publishing house, which he directed from 1877 to 1921. Located close to the Palais-Royal, the Stock firm published the great majority of plays performed in Paris at that time.