Frère OcéanPour Sganarelle — La Danse de Gengis Cohn — La Tête coupable
Paris, Gallimard, (27 septembre) 1965, (11 mai) 1967 et (25 mars) 1968.
3 vols. (145 × 210 mm), 476, 276 and 297 pp. Burgundy morocco; velvet doublures and endleaves; titles gilt, dates gilt at foot of spines; edges gilt on the rough; original wrappers and spines preserved; slipcases (bindings signed Goy & Vilaine).
First editions.
Copies from the deluxe issue on vélin de Hollande: one of 27 copies for Pour Sganarelle, and one of 23 copies for each of the two following volumes, all numbered 11.
Copies from the deluxe issue on vélin de Hollande: one of 27 copies for Pour Sganarelle, and one of 23 copies for each of the two following volumes, all numbered 11.
Frère Océan opens with Pour Sganarelle, Gary’s combative manifesto for the novel, written against the New Novel and against the reduction of fiction to theory. He defends character, imagination, emotion and narrative abundance — the novel as a total, living form.
The two following books put that poetics into action. In The Dance of Genghis Cohn, Gary confronts the Holocaust through savage black comedy: a former SS officer is haunted by the dybbuk of the Jew he murdered. La Tête coupable continues this exploration of guilt, identity and the murderous illusions of the century.
A remarkable set of the three volumes of Frère Océan, each from the deluxe issue on Holland paper, in uniform bindings.
#26591
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