Le Cap de Bonne Espérance. Poème
€400.00
With *Le Cap de Bonne Espérance* (Éditions de la Sirène, 1919), Jean Cocteau offers an early poetic experiment often regarded as one of his first truly ‘modern’ books. The typography is airy, set in broken lines and open spaces, so that the page itself conveys speed and vertigo. This is the first edition, prized for the way design and poem become inseparable. The text moves by sudden images—half lyrical, half montage—advancing in jolts rather than smooth narrative. As an object it remains elegantly compact: a square-format pamphlet in French wrappers with flaps, characteristic of La Sirène’s refined production values. This numbered copy retains the bibliophile aura of a press that helped define modern literary presentation in the immediate postwar years.
Quantity
Cocteau, Jean
ILLUSTRATORS
ILLUSTRATORS
ILLUSTRATORS
Le Cap de Bonne Espérance. Poème
1919 | Paris | Éditions de la Sirène
An early, typographically innovative Cocteau in the first edition—small in format, major in modern drive.
With *Le Cap de Bonne Espérance* (Éditions de la Sirène, 1919), Jean Cocteau offers an early poetic experiment often regarded as one of his first truly ‘modern’ books. The typography is airy, set in broken lines and open spaces, so that the page itself conveys speed and vertigo. This is the first edition, prized for the way design and poem become inseparable. The text moves by sudden images—half lyrical, half montage—advancing in jolts rather than smooth narrative. As an object it remains elegantly compact: a square-format pamphlet in French wrappers with flaps, characteristic of La Sirène’s refined production values. This numbered copy retains the bibliophile aura of a press that helped define modern literary presentation in the immediate postwar years.
€400
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-12 (Duodecimo) approx. 17 × 22 cm
Edition Particulars
Numbered copy No. 475 (j.c.).
Print Run
510
Copy Number
No. 475
Paper
Papier bouffant (j.c.)
Inscription
No inscription
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Edition Particulars:
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Product DETAIL
A short poem centered on movement, leap, and inner momentum, with the page layout actively composing the sensation of speed. Traditional verse is disrupted through white space and broken lines, turning reading into a visual choreography. Images arrive as flashes—anchors, horizons, voices, impulses—associative rather than narrative. The title suggests a geographic threshold, used as a metaphor for passage and transformation. The result is a concentrated modernist booklet in which typography and poetic breath form a single unit.
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La Liberté ou l'Amour ! by Robert Desnos is a monument of Surrealist literature, presented here in an exceptional binding by master bookbinder Jean de Gonet. This 1927 edition contains the full text, including the notorious passages censored at the time. The work is a feverish exploration of eroticism and freedom, written in the automatic style that Desnos perfected. The combination of Desnos's rebellious text and De Gonet's industrial, architectural aesthetic makes this copy a unique collector's item. Furthermore, it bears the signature of Czech artist Adolf Hoffmeister, adding to its historical significance. For the bibliophile, this book represents the perfect symbiosis between avant-garde literature and innovative bookbinding art. With its dreamlike logic, unsettling eroticism, and atmosphere of veiled desire, this book can evoke Stanley Kubrick’s film Eyes Wide Shut
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In Choix de poèmes, Michaux’s poetic trajectory is gathered into a compact, portable compass. This édition originale collective was issued by NRF in 1976; the present copy is from the minute head issue of fifteen on vélin pur fil. Miguet’s sober Havana-morocco binding, with panelled frame, marries elegance to rigor—akin to a voice moving between vision and observation. The selection shows the steady pursuit of inner landscapes and linguistic shock. For bibliophiles, luxury paper, original state and atelier binding make a persuasive triad. Provenance from Jacques Dauchez provides a discreet, eloquent seal.
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In Poteaux d’angles, Henri Michaux returns to compact, probing prose balanced between poem and notebook. Issued by L’Herne in 1971, this copy is from the exceedingly scarce head issue on Hollande paper. Miguet’s raspberry-morocco panelled binding lends a mineral poise that suits Michaux’s angular sentences. The brief pieces act as beacons—jottings, sallies, flashes of insight and refusal. For bibliophiles the trio is ideal: original edition, luxury paper, and a fine atelier binding. The Jacques Dauchez provenance seals its pedigree.
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Moments is a late, compact Michaux volume where language probes time in brief surges and pauses. The grey-buffalo Jansenist binding—by Miguet—frames the spare layout and lets the text’s rhythm breathe. The title points to flashes of consciousness: halts, starts, reprises. As the édition originale in NRF’s “Le Point du Jour” series, the book exemplifies postwar bibliophile exactitude: precise setting, generous white, tactile paper. This copy is from the very small head issue on vergé de Hollande. The binding’s discreet elegance heightens reading focus.
