DUMAS Alexandre (1802-1870).

Lot 22
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DUMAS Alexandre (1802-1870).
Signed autograph manuscript, incomplete of the Memoirs of Talma, (6 pages in the hand of two secretaries). Paris, January 24, 1848. 156 pp. and 13 half-pages, broadsheet (28,5 x 43,7 cm), on blue paper. Pages 69 and 70 of volume III are heavily damaged (reinforced with paper, with gaps in the text) and some pages stained (inks, grease, dust, foxing...). This interesting and important manuscript, even if it is incomplete, is a precious source of information. Indeed, this working manuscript is rich in annotations, some of which have been added for the printing. The differences which appear at the time of the comparison between the manuscript and the edition of the Memoirs published by H. Souverain in 1849 for volumes I and II, then in 1850 for volumes III and IV, can be significant. The present chapters evoke, on the one hand, Talma's life, his aspirations, his beginnings as an actor and his work as an actor, his feelings for "Madame Des Garcins"... on the other hand, the History of France. Talma was a privileged witness of the end of the Monarchy, the Revolution, and the Empire. His Memoirs conclude with the return of General Bonaparte from Egypt. The manuscript of Talma's Memoirs, begins with a preface entitled "Un mot" (4 ½ pp.), followed by chapters VI to VIII of the first volume (25 ½ pp.), corresponding to the last three chapters of volume I. A few pages belonging to chapter I of volume II (5 pp.). Volume III is almost complete, missing only chapter I and beginning with "La Rupture à la Comédie-Française" (58 pp. and 5 half-pages). The fourth and last volume is the most complete, with only a few pages missing (64 pp. and 6 half-pages). The pages of this manuscript are numbered by volume in the upper left corner, some pages are double numbered. There are two other hands: the first one on pages 44 and 45 of chapter I of volume II, this passage corresponds only to a quotation. The second hand, on pages 2 (1/2p), 3, 7 (1/2p), 8 (1/2p) pages located at the end of volume III and corresponding to 2 quotations and the recopy of a report. The manuscript completes, almost entirely, the manuscript of the Memoirs of Talma which is in the Alexandre Dumas Museum of Villers-Cotterêts.
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