En trente-trois morceaux
Previously unpublished preamble and afterword.
One of 50 copies on vélin pur chiffon d'Arches (no. 3), with the original etching in three colors signed by Char as frontispiece. It is reserved for the first 58 copies; it is numbered and titled: “épreuve d'artiste / démon déguisée en roseau.”
Signed presentation inscription: “Au Docteur Zara avec ma sympathie amicale René Char.”
A precious copy from the library of Dr. Marcel Zara, physician and friend of René Char.
A major bibliophile, Zara had assembled a remarkable collection devoted to the poet, comprising more than sixty of his works, often enriched with inscriptions, along with manuscripts and autograph documents. The succession of dedications attests to a lasting and familiar relationship between the two men. Physician to several writers and artists, Zara also belonged to the circle of Jean Hugues, the gallerist and publisher closely linked to Char.
En trente-trois morceaux brings together texts drawn from Char’s earliest collections — Le Marteau sans maître, Placard pour un chemin des écoliers, Art bref, Dehors la nuit est gouvernée — recomposed into a new book. In his previously unpublished preamble, Char gives this retrospective undertaking a poetic origin: that of an imaginary fall during which “the tower of my poems” shatters like glass:
“Une des nuits dernières, passant ici et songeant à lui [Marcel Proust], la masse verticale et peu illuminée de mes premiers ouvrages posée en équilibre sur ma tête, j’avançais sans prudence. […] Soudain […] la tour de mes poèmes s’écroula au sol, se brisa comme verre. […] Je ramassai trente-trois morceaux. Après un moment de désarroi je constatai que je n’avais perdu dans cet accident que le sommet de mon visage.”
Provenance: Bibliothèque poétique du docteur Marcel Zara (Paris, Drouot, March 20, 2026, no. 205).
Cahiers de l’Herne, 228; Coron, GLM, 409; PAB, René Char, 70; L’Herne, Bibliographie, p. 279, no. 228.