Au château d'Argol
Julien Gracq’s debut novel, issued by José Corti, sets a gothic castle on the Breton coast as the stage for a charged, almost dream-logic encounter between three figures. The prose is musical and image-rich, favouring symbolic landscapes and metaphysical weather. Born near Surrealism yet distinctly independent, the book establishes Gracq’s lucid enchantment from the start. For bibliophiles this is a key title: an early Corti publication, scarce in appealing condition, and the opening note of a major twentieth-century voice. Its limited print-run and initially slow reception add to the sense of discovery. This copy is on publisher’s stock.
Quantity
Gracq, Julien
Au château d'Argol
1938 | Paris | Jose Corti
A pivotal debut that sets Gracq’s tone and signals a discreet yet durable modernity. In good, honest condition it is a desirable acquisition. A rare Corti printing with lasting sheen. We also include a copy of this second printing from 1945.
Julien Gracq’s debut novel, issued by José Corti, sets a gothic castle on the Breton coast as the stage for a charged, almost dream-logic encounter between three figures. The prose is musical and image-rich, favouring symbolic landscapes and metaphysical weather. Born near Surrealism yet distinctly independent, the book establishes Gracq’s lucid enchantment from the start. For bibliophiles this is a key title: an early Corti publication, scarce in appealing condition, and the opening note of a major twentieth-century voice. Its limited print-run and initially slow reception add to the sense of discovery. This copy is on publisher’s stock.
€610
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-12 (Duodecimo) approx. 17 × 22 cm
Edition Particulars
Copy on publisher’s stock within a total run of 1200; together with a copy of the 1945 reprint.
Print Run
1200
Inscription
No inscription
Product DETAIL
In this concentrated narrative, Herminien, Albert and Heide move through the castle and its surrounding woods, where nature and architecture act like characters. The plot is minimal yet taut; jealousy, seduction and sacrifice unfold in a ritual of glances and silences. The Armorican landscape turns inward, with light and stone galvanising consciousness. Gracq’s cadence—solemn, deliberately archaizing—heightens a mythic register. The novel is both gothic and modern: a meditation on desire, death and fate, held within rigorous composition. Its final image remains ambiguous, resonant like a legend.
Michaux, Henri
Ailleurs
*Ailleurs* is a keystone in Michaux’s imaginary ethnographies—an atlas of inner geographies, issued by NRF in 1948. Miguet’s sober bordeaux morocco binding matches the text’s clarity and restraint. With dry precision and wry humor, Michaux details peoples, rituals, and languages that are both alien and oddly familiar. The airy layout paces attention and thought. This copy belongs to the small head issue on vélin pur fil and is notably fresh. A book that relocates the reader in place—a cartography of the mind.
Book
€1,050
Bousquet, Joë
Traduit du silence. Proses
Traduit du silence. Proses is one of Joë Bousquet’s rare pre-war publications, issued in the poetic series of Les Cahiers du Journal des Poètes. Its title already contains the central paradox of the book: writing as if translated from silence, seclusion and inward intensity. This copy is notable for its deluxe issue on Featherweight fort, numbered with the crowned-heart device, but above all for its signed autograph inscription to Jeanne and James Ducellier. The Ducelliers were among Bousquet’s closest confidants in Carcassonne and belonged to the circle where literature, friendship and surrealism converged. This is therefore not merely an early and refined edition, but a tangible document of a personal and artistic network. The book connects Bousquet’s enclosed room with the broader surrealist constellation of Max Ernst, Paul Éluard, Yves Tanguy and Raymond Roussel.
Book
€250
Éluard, Paul
Quelques-uns des mots qui jusqu’ici m’étaient mystérieusement interdits
With *Quelques-uns des mots qui jusqu’ici m’étaient mystérieusement interdits*, Paul Éluard published one of his most refined small-format books with Guy Lévis Mano at the end of 1937. At G.L.M. the text was given an unusually deliberate typographic form, making the physical disposition of words an integral part of the poetic experience. The publication belongs to Éluard’s mature Surrealist period, when language, desire and the liberation of thought were closely intertwined. Guy Lévis Mano acted not merely as publisher but also as printer and typographic designer, giving the volume an exceptional unity of poetry and bookmaking. The complete numbered edition comprised only 346 copies on three different papers. This copy is numbered 32 and is therefore not merely one of 45 copies on Normandy vellum, but the very first numbered copy on this second paper. It follows immediately after the 31 deluxe copies on vergé Hollande Pannekoek. Its precise position in the limitation gives the copy additional bibliographical distinction.
Book
€950
Ribemont-Dessaignes, Georges
Ariane
A remarkable copy of *Ariane*, published in the *Les Cahiers Nouveaux* series, inscribed with a poetic and enigmatic message by Ribemont-Dessaignes to Jacques Matarasso. This deluxe Japan paper edition was elegantly rebound in 1994 by Georges Leroux, in a restrained style that echoes the work’s Dadaist spirit.
Book
€1,100
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