Le Chevalier des Touches
Signed presentation inscription: “à Mademoiselle Mathilde Biéli, son respectueux Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly.”
Le Chevalier des Touches was published in Paris in twelve installments in Le Nain jaune from 18 July to 2 September 1863, and in book form by Michel Lévy in 1864. The writing of this historical novel, repeatedly interrupted for lack of documentation or because the author gave precedence to other work, took twelve years.
A choice copy bound for Barbey d’Aurevilly by Gayler-Hirou, his favorite binder, with royal arms evoking the allegiance of his hero, and two-colored edges. Three manuscript corrections appear in the text, almost certainly in Barbey’s hand, on pages 25, 53 and 208.
It is known that the writer had copies of his books bound to his own taste, to give as presents to those close to him, as he himself states in several letters. This precious copy was exhibited at the exhibition organized for the centenary of the writer’s death at the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris in 1989 (cf. Catalogue Barbey d’Aurevilly, no. 115). It subsequently belonged to Joël Dupont, an eminent Barbey specialist who was, for forty years, curator of the Musée Barbey d’Aurevilly at Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte. It now rests, by exceptional municipal dispensation, at the foot of the château, near the author’s tomb.
From the libraries of J. M. and Joël Dupont, with bookplates.
Upper joint fragile.