These two sets of proofs have been preserved in two cardboard folders titled in ink by Hervé Bazin.
598 leaves in total, containing numerous corrections, both typographical and semantic, throughout the proofs and especially in the first set.
With Le Cri de la chouette, Bazin orchestrates the thunderous return of Folcoche — the unforgettable tyrannical matriarch — reappearing at her son Jean’s home after twenty years of silence. The clash between the old and new generations is head-on: the mother’s rigid principles meet the liberating irony of youth. But beneath the family satire lies a broader unease, that of a world which has changed without warning its elders.
These two sets of proofs contain numerous corrections — formal and typographical, but also corrective changes to the text, with hesitations and second thoughts — offering a rare glimpse into Bazin’s creative process. The final point is given by the author, with his bon à tirer.
The foreword to the text is added, in Hervé Bazin’s own hand: “Vipère au poing and La Mort du petit cheval were already novels. Le Cri de la chouette, their sequel, is no exception [corrected to: “l’est aussi” in the second set of proofs]: any identification of the characters with real persons would be illusory.”
Accompanied by the first edition in book form: one of 135 copies on vélin pur fil (no. 70).
A fine set.