Le Rêve et la Vie
This posthumous collection of 1855 occupies a distinctive place in Gérard de Nerval’s work. At its heart is *Aurélia*, one of his last and most personal texts, in which dream, memory and lived reality continually merge. Although *Aurélia* had already appeared in the *Revue de Paris* in January and February 1855, Victor Lecou’s volume represents its crucial first publication in book form. The bibliographically precise designation is therefore edition in part original. No special large-paper issue or separate deluxe printing appears to have been produced, so the bibliophile hierarchy of copies depends chiefly on condition, preservation of the wrappers, provenance and binding. This copy is distinguished by its preserved original yellow wrapper and the elegant black half-morocco binding signed E. & A. Maylander.
Quantity
Gérard de Nerval
Le Rêve et la Vie
1855 | Paris | Victor Lecou
A key book from Nerval’s final period, important as the first book publication of *Aurélia* and as a posthumous synthesis of his visionary prose. The preserved original wrapper and signed Maylander binding give this copy notable collector appeal.
This posthumous collection of 1855 occupies a distinctive place in Gérard de Nerval’s work. At its heart is *Aurélia*, one of his last and most personal texts, in which dream, memory and lived reality continually merge. Although *Aurélia* had already appeared in the *Revue de Paris* in January and February 1855, Victor Lecou’s volume represents its crucial first publication in book form. The bibliographically precise designation is therefore edition in part original. No special large-paper issue or separate deluxe printing appears to have been produced, so the bibliophile hierarchy of copies depends chiefly on condition, preservation of the wrappers, provenance and binding. This copy is distinguished by its preserved original yellow wrapper and the elegant black half-morocco binding signed E. & A. Maylander.
€1,150
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-12 (Duodecimo) approx. 17 × 22 cm
Edition Particulars
Copy on ordinary paper; no large-paper or deluxe issue known, with the original yellow wrapper preserved and bound in signed black half-morocco by E. & A. Maylander.
Inscription
No inscription
Product DETAIL
The collection is dominated by *Aurélia*, in which a first-person narrator recounts a psychological crisis together with dreams, visions and memories that acquire for him a reality equal to everyday life. In Paris and during periods of seclusion and treatment, he tries to impose order on experiences of loss, love, guilt and religious signs. The beloved Aurélia appears both as a personal memory and as a figure within an ever-expanding symbolic universe. The other prose pieces move through historical, artistic and travel-related subjects, touching on alchemy, Constantinople, Northern Europe, Montenegro, eighteenth-century culture and Parisian theatrical life. The book therefore has no continuous plot but takes the form of a collection combining autobiographical visions, essays, memories and narratives. Above all, *Aurélia* gives the volume its enduring intensity through its radical interweaving of dream and reality.
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
Gracq, Julien
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.
Book
€610
Dominique Fourcade, Pierre Buraglio · Buraglio, Pierre
Au travail ma chérie
First volume in the Préférence series: a focused encounter between Dominique Fourcade and Pierre Buraglio. The Imprimerie nationale produced an exemplary typographic edition on Rives wove, limited to 100 copies signed by both. Buraglio “illuminates” the book with spare, hand-made interventions—strokes, contours, accents—that let the page breathe. The plain wrappers in a sturdy case stress the workshop feel. This copy bears a presentation to Jacques Dauchez, adding a vivid bibliophilic provenance. A scarce, exact book where typography, gesture, and poetry hold each other in balance.
Book
€725
Aragon, Louis
Anicet ou le panorama
With *Anicet ou le panorama* (Paris, NRF, 1921), Louis Aragon delivers an early, deliberately hybrid novel written at the hinge between Dada disruption and the rise of Surrealism. The book proceeds by visions and sequences—a “panorama” in which identity, desire, and the act of looking continually shift. In this bibliophile form (“tirage de tête” reserved for NRF bibliophiles), the novel also becomes a collectible object intended for a small inner circle. This copy is specifically designated “pour le Dr. Sourdel” and numbered XLVIII, underscoring the selective, personalized nature of the issue. Published under the NRF imprint, Aragon is anchored in the literary center while keeping the book’s formal audacity intact. A key item for understanding the nervous modernity of the early 1920s.