L’Ordre
Paris, Gallimard, (January 19) 1945.
1 vol. (115 x 180 mm) of 542 p. and [1] f. Publisher's boards.
First edition in NRF boards.
One of 1,000 copies on alfa paper, bound after the design by Mario Prassinos (no. 477).
One of 1,000 copies on alfa paper, bound after the design by Mario Prassinos (no. 477).
A recognized critic for the Nouvelle Revue Française and a teacher of literature at Jouy-en-Josas, Marcel Arland (1899–1986) had already published five novels when he received the Prix Goncourt for L’Ordre. The novel captures the disillusionment of the immediate postwar years: Arland traces the fate of a young provincial who comes up to Paris, crushed under the weight of convention and social order, tempted by rebellion but soon called back into line, trapped by mediocre ambition and bourgeois compromise.
The award confirmed the NRF’s growing hold on the prize. The choice came at the expense of Blaise Cendrars, whose Les Confessions de Dan Yack received only a single vote.
From the “Prix Goncourt” library of Gérard Pouguet, with bookplate.
#31351
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