Le Roi des Aulnes

Following the success of Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique (Grand Prix de l’Académie française, 1967), Michel Tournier submitted the manuscript of his second novel, Le Roi des Aulnes, to Dominique Aury. The reader for the Gallimard editorial committee, herself the discreet author of Histoire d’O, gave her verdict at the committee meeting of 6 January 1970: “It is a very extraordinary book,” “the portrait of an obsessed, passionate being, ravaged and yet triumphant in his very disaster.” She nevertheless recommended that the author lighten and tighten the first part.

On 3 March 1970, Tournier submitted a new, “provisionally definitive” manuscript to Claude Gallimard for review. Dominique Aury again suggested certain modifications and prepared arguments to persuade the author, forwarded to him by Claude Gallimard on 20 April 1970. Tournier’s precise reply to these recommendations survives:

“It is not for lack of scruple or goodwill. Since 1 January, the manuscript of Le Roi des Aulnes has been submitted to: a senior pediatrician, a literary critic (Robert Poulet), a public prosecutor, a German historian specializing in the Third Reich, a connoisseur of hunting and horsemanship — in addition, of course, to Gallimard’s own readers, whom I have listened to pen in hand. The result is a file containing hundreds of technical and literary observations and objections, on which I have been working for four months. Needless to say, if I took all these observations into account, I would have to write an entirely different story — one that would, moreover, make neither head nor tail of sense.”

Tournier held his ground and gave up nothing of his text. Rightly so, since the novel went on to win the Prix Goncourt, by unanimous vote of the ten judges dining at the Restaurant Drouant.

A very fine copy of excellent provenance: Francis Ambrière, himself awarded the Prix Goncourt thirty years earlier for Les Grandes Vacances. The book is beautifully bound in full high-quality morocco by Patrick Loutrel.