Mal d’amour
One of 90 copies on vélin pur fil (no. 72).
Signed presentation inscription: “Comme la douleur physique, la douleur morale sait varier ses aspects. C'est une coquette qui aime changer la parure et qui, pour se rajeunir, n'hésite pas à suivre toutes les modes. À Monsieur Hubert Person, avec le très sympathique hommage d'un ancien de Janson, J. Fayard.”
Journalist and novelist Jean Fayard (1902–1978) won the prize for this psychological novel devoted to the romantic disillusionments of Parisian youth. The award proved controversial: Fayard was the son of the publisher Arthème Fayard, and many suspected family favoritism behind the novel’s success. It remained his only Prix Goncourt, a fleeting but symbolic honor for a publishing house better known for popular fiction, and which in these same years was enjoying great success with the first books of a young Belgian novelist, Georges Simenon.
On 14 December 1931, the prize was awarded to him by seven votes to three. Many observers had expected Antoine de Saint-Exupéry to win for Vol de nuit (Night Flight), which instead received the Prix Femina.
From the “Goncourt” libraries of Hubert Person and Gérard Pouguet, with bookplates.