La Parole en archipel
La Parole en archipel is one of the major collections of René Char’s mature period and was published by the NRF in Paris in 1962. It is not merely a new gathering of poems, but a collective edition bringing together several earlier sequences, sometimes in revised form or with variants. The volume thus takes on the character of a poetic constellation: not a closed cycle, but an archipelago of voices, flashes, and tensions. Its title expresses that principle perfectly, since Char allows the individual parts to coexist without dissolving their singularity. The result is a broad yet highly concentrated view of his poetry from the 1950s and early 1960s. The deluxe issue on Madagascar Navarre further underscores the bibliophile prestige of the first edition. This copy, number 12 of the 18 de tête, thus combines literary substance with marked rarity.
Quantity
Char, Rene
La Parole en archipel
1962 | Paris | NRF
A major work of Char’s maturity, in the sought-after 1962 collective edition and in the extremely scarce deluxe issue on Madagascar Navarre.
La Parole en archipel is one of the major collections of René Char’s mature period and was published by the NRF in Paris in 1962. It is not merely a new gathering of poems, but a collective edition bringing together several earlier sequences, sometimes in revised form or with variants. The volume thus takes on the character of a poetic constellation: not a closed cycle, but an archipelago of voices, flashes, and tensions. Its title expresses that principle perfectly, since Char allows the individual parts to coexist without dissolving their singularity. The result is a broad yet highly concentrated view of his poetry from the 1950s and early 1960s. The deluxe issue on Madagascar Navarre further underscores the bibliophile prestige of the first edition. This copy, number 12 of the 18 de tête, thus combines literary substance with marked rarity.
€1,400
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-8 (Octavo) approx. 20 × 26 cm
Edition Particulars
One of the 18 deluxe copies on Madagascar Navarre; wrappers slightly sunned.
Print Run
143
Copy Number
No. 12
Paper
Madagascar Navarre
Inscription
No inscription
Product DETAIL
This collective volume brings together several poetic groupings by René Char, including Lettera Amorosa, La Paroi et la prairie, Poèmes des Deux Années, La Bibliothèque est en feu et autres poèmes, Au-dessus du Vent, and Quitter, together with a few previously unpublished poems. There is no linear narrative and no fixed cast of characters; at the centre stands a lyric voice moving among love, nature, violence, memory, moral vigilance, and knowledge. Each section has its own rhythm and emphasis, yet together they form a broad field of experience and meditation. The poems shift between brief aphoristic concentration and more expansive lyrical passages. The result is a book that is both retrospective and new, since Char rearranges earlier work while placing it beside other poems. The reader is thus given not a simple selection but a carefully composed ordering of autonomous ensembles. Its dominant themes are tension, clarity, resistance, and an intense bond with the visible world.
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