Les Innocents
Presentation copy inscribed by Carco to Émile Henriot: “à Émile Henriot, avec mes meilleurs sentiments. F. Carco.”
Chapter XXIV was censored, as was the last line of page 184: our copy bears a manuscript addition by the author at that spot.
Francis Carco’s second novel, published in the midst of the war, at a time when the author, initially declared unfit for service, was under strong moral and political pressure to enlist. The novel, with autobiographical overtones, recounts his bohemian youth in a fluid, nervous style, punctuated by street scenes and impulses toward enlistment. It was subject to explicit censorship, with an entire chapter (chapter XXIV) suppressed in the first edition, as well as the last line of page 184.
Our copy is distinguished by the presence, at that very spot, of an autograph addition by the author: “j’mi engage au Bataillon.”
This note takes on a particular significance: Carco was indeed mobilized in March 1918, assigned as a nurse to the auxiliary military hospital no. 76 in Nevers. He never went to the front, but this belated enlistment was enough to silence the suspicions of unpatriotic sentiment sometimes directed at him. The note thus appears to be both a snub to the censors and a declaration of intent, whether sincere or ironic.