Le Grand Écart
€850.00
Cocteau’s early novel *Le Grand Écart* appears here in its original form: a graceful 12mo from Stock in the famed pink wrappers. The prose captures postwar Paris with cinematic agility, laced with poetry and worldly wit. Its tone shifts between irony and tenderness, probing adolescence, the theatre, and social masks. This review copy bears a signed presentation to the poet Léon Guillot de Saix (dated May 1923), lending vivid provenance. It retains the separate errata leaf, seldom preserved. A touchstone copy where literature and the artistic milieu meet.
Quantity
Cocteau, Jean
ILLUSTRATORS
ILLUSTRATORS
ILLUSTRATORS
Le Grand Écart
1923 | Paris | Stock
An early, lively Cocteau copy—inscribed review issue with errata—scarce in this condition. A key piece for collectors of 1920s Paris.
Cocteau’s early novel *Le Grand Écart* appears here in its original form: a graceful 12mo from Stock in the famed pink wrappers. The prose captures postwar Paris with cinematic agility, laced with poetry and worldly wit. Its tone shifts between irony and tenderness, probing adolescence, the theatre, and social masks. This review copy bears a signed presentation to the poet Léon Guillot de Saix (dated May 1923), lending vivid provenance. It retains the separate errata leaf, seldom preserved. A touchstone copy where literature and the artistic milieu meet.
€850
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-12 (Duodecimo) approx. 17 × 22 cm
Edition Particulars
Review-service copy with signed presentation to Léon Guillot de Saix (May 1923); complete with errata leaf.
1
Edition Particulars:
We welcome private inquiries, collaborations with institutions, and acquisition requests. Each message is treated with discretion and respect. We welcome private inquiries, collaborations with institutions, and acquisition requests.
1
Print Run:
Condition Report:
1
Copy Number:
Condition Report:
1
Paper:
Condition Report:
1
Signed:
Condition Report:
Product DETAIL
The novel follows characters testing identity and desire against the backdrop of Parisian stages. Cocteau maps the sharp splits between self and society—the “grand split” between ideal and reality. Friendship, theatre, and metamorphosis recur in nimble, dialogue-driven scenes. The style is elliptical and musical, moving in quick snapshots through salons and backstage corridors. The result is a portrait of youth in friction with its times.
Desnos, Robert
La Liberté ou l'Amour !
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
Book
€3,200
Michaux, Henri
Choix de poèmes
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.
Book
€700
Michaux, Henri
Poteaux d’angles
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.
Book
€600
Michaux, Henri
Moments
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.
