DUMAS fils (Alexandre).

Lot 53
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5000 - 6000 EUR
DUMAS fils (Alexandre).
The Natural Son. Comedy in five acts. Paris, Charlieu, 1858. In-12, fawn morocco, boards covered with a repetitive decoration consisting of a pavement of cold crosses punctuated at each intersection by a gilt pastille, each diamond thus formed charged with the capital letter H, sawtooth border drawn with gilt irons, spine decorated with the same decoration in the inter-nerve areas, inner lace, red edges painted with a seed of gilt stars, case (Gruel). First edition. Copy printed on strong paper, offered by the author to his great friend the poet and diplomat Henri d'Ideville (1830-1887). It is presented in a very remarkable binding with the figure H sown on the boards and repeated on the spine, executed by Léon Gruel. It is enriched with a long unpublished autobiographical essay of seventeen pages, written and signed by the author himself on the endpapers at the beginning and at the end of the volume. This one, written in Saint-Valéry-en-Caux (Seine-Maritime) on August 18, 1858, is addressed to Henri d'Ideville. These pages are of great interest, Alexandre Dumas fils not sparing any intimate details and telling, speaking openly about his life, his tastes, his acquaintances, his loves, etc. You asked me to write a preface for you at the beginning of the Fils naturel, just for you, he wrote to his friend. Dumas evokes his dramatic beginnings: I owe this exception not only to my best friend, but also to the assiduous witness and patient confidant of my hopes, my hesitations, my discouragements during the conception and elaboration of each of my plays. Then he speaks of his love for Marie Duplessis, who inspired the character of Marguerite Gautier in La Dame aux camélias (1848): In 1845, I had been the lover of a beautiful, maintained girl. This affair had lasted six weeks. I had loved this girl as one loves a Parisian courtesan at the age of twenty. Separated from her for two years, I learned of her death abroad. This death moved me beyond measure. From this emotion was born the novel La Dame aux Camélias, of which only the first third is true, modelled on the beginning of my relationship with Marie Duplessis. All the rest, all the sentimental and poetic part, all the drama pure imagination, supposition of my mind set in motion by a heartbeat. The book was a success [...]. Dumas reveals himself and gives astonishing details about his readings and his activity as a writer: Not a word of geography, mathematics, physics, natural history. I don't know the chronology of the kings of France and I don't know, for example, in which department Vendôme or Nantes or Épernay is located. An extraordinary thing in my profession or in my art, as you wish, depending on the degree of esteem in which you hold my literature, I have read nothing or almost nothing by French or foreign authors. [...] I have read Molière's Misanthrope. Two years ago, for the first time, I read Tartuffe, Don Juan, The Forced Marriage, Georges Dandin, Amphitrion, The School and the critique of The School for Women. From Racine, Phèdre, Athalie. From Corneille, nothing. [...] the cause of this incredible ignorance is a great natural laziness - encouraged and strengthened by execrable university studies -, an abandoned, sad, sick, contemplative childhood, dreamy to excess, a disordered youth, an immoderate thirst for pleasure [...]. The writer ends by revealing his thoughts on the theatre, and talks about his plays: Diane de Lys, Le Demi-monde, Le Fils naturel, etc. This extraordinary document, written with total sincerity, gives this copy a most precious intimate character. From the R. and B. Loliée Library Loliée library (VII, 2018, n°73). Upper hinges skilfully restored.
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