Le Solitaire
With *Le Solitaire* in 1973, Eugène Ionesco turned to the novel, producing the only full-length work in that genre within his oeuvre. The writer internationally celebrated for his Theatre of the Absurd here transfers his familiar concerns with solitude, death and the futility of human activity into a deeply introspective prose form. An unexpected inheritance frees the unnamed protagonist from his office routine, yet financial independence proves very different from genuine freedom. His withdrawal from society instead intensifies anxiety, alienation and his sense of the fundamental mystery of existence. The first edition published by Mercure de France is particularly desirable bibliographically because of its extremely small deluxe issue on Hollande Van Gelder laid paper. This copy is number 13 of only fifteen numbered copies on this first paper and remains unopened. It therefore combines an important text from Ionesco’s late career with one of the rarest and best-preserved forms of its original edition.
Quantity
Eugène Ionesco
Le Solitaire
1973 | Paris | Mercure de France
Ionesco’s only novel acquires exceptional bibliophile distinction in this first edition through its tiny first-paper issue. Number 13 of fifteen on Hollande Van Gelder, still unopened, is among the most desirable forms in which *Le Solitaire* can be collected.
With *Le Solitaire* in 1973, Eugène Ionesco turned to the novel, producing the only full-length work in that genre within his oeuvre. The writer internationally celebrated for his Theatre of the Absurd here transfers his familiar concerns with solitude, death and the futility of human activity into a deeply introspective prose form. An unexpected inheritance frees the unnamed protagonist from his office routine, yet financial independence proves very different from genuine freedom. His withdrawal from society instead intensifies anxiety, alienation and his sense of the fundamental mystery of existence. The first edition published by Mercure de France is particularly desirable bibliographically because of its extremely small deluxe issue on Hollande Van Gelder laid paper. This copy is number 13 of only fifteen numbered copies on this first paper and remains unopened. It therefore combines an important text from Ionesco’s late career with one of the rarest and best-preserved forms of its original edition.
€380
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-8 (Octavo) approx. 20 × 26 cm
Edition Particulars
One of 15 copies numbered 1 to 15 on Hollande Van Gelder laid paper, the first paper; a further 10 hors-commerce copies were printed on the same paper; this copy is unopened.
Print Run
400
Copy Number
No. 13
Paper
vergé de Hollande Van Gelder
Inscription
No inscription
Product DETAIL
An unnamed thirty-five-year-old office clerk unexpectedly inherits a considerable fortune from an American uncle. After roughly fifteen years in the same job, he resigns and moves into a comfortable apartment on the outskirts of Paris. His days are spent between his home, restaurants, newspapers, drinking and observing other people, while thoughts of ageing and death increasingly dominate him. A brief relationship with a waitress likewise fails to overcome his fundamental isolation. When social unrest and violence erupt outside, events in the streets become increasingly entangled with his own inner disintegration. In encounters with psychiatrists, acquaintances and strangers, he continues to ask why people live, act and believe when death remains unavoidable. Towards the end, his experience takes on an almost visionary quality when an apparition of light seems to him a possible sign. The novel thus combines the concrete story of a voluntary withdrawal from society with Ionesco’s recurring themes of existential anxiety, alienation and wonder.
Eugène Ionesco
Antidotes
*Antidotes* brings together Eugène Ionesco’s polemical, autobiographical and literary reflections spanning more than fifteen years and provides an important key to the thought underlying his theatre. Most of the texts had first appeared in periodicals between 1961 and 1976 before being collected here in book form. Ionesco attacks ideological rigidity, political orthodoxies and collective conformity, while equally resisting attempts to reduce the human condition to purely social explanations. Art, culture, freedom and the metaphysical uncertainty of existence recur throughout the volume. His characteristic distrust of slogans and fossilised language assumes an explicitly polemical form in these essays. Gallimard’s collective first edition also includes an exceptionally restricted deluxe issue of only 25 copies on Arches Arjomari-Prioux wove paper, the sole large-paper issue. This copy is number 8 and is preserved in very good condition, making it a particularly desirable example of the edition.
Book
€250
Michaux, Henri
Affrontements
This 1981 edition of Henri Michaux's 'Affrontements' is a unique copy, enhanced by a handwritten and signed dedication from the author to Colette Roubaud. The dedication, brief yet profound, bears Michaux's characteristic poetic signature and adds a unique personal dimension to the work. The book is further complemented by an unsent, melancholic letter from Colette Roubaud herself, dated 'Samedi 22 Août' from Paris. This letter, which speaks of a missed encounter and a reluctance that prevented her from seeing Michaux at Beaubourg, creates an intimate and almost tangible document of an unfulfilled connection. This copy is not only a literary edition of Michaux's work but also a window into a personal interaction, frozen in time. The whole constitutes a rare and intriguing find for collectors of modern literature and Michaux's oeuvre.
Book
€765
Eugène Ionesco
Un homme en question
In *Un homme en question*, published in 1979, Eugène Ionesco brought together recent articles, chronicles and interviews to form a highly personal and polemical self-portrait. The great innovator of post-war theatre appears here not only as a dramatist but as an essayist continually questioning his age, his convictions and his own anxieties. Politics, ideology and the cultural crisis of the West alternate with childhood memories, dreams, fantasies and his recurring fear of death. The result is considerably more intimate than a conventional collection of essays. At the same time, the continuity with Ionesco’s theatre is unmistakable: the same distrust of collective certainties, fossilised language and conformity shapes these reflections. Gallimard’s first edition also exists in an exceptionally restricted bibliophile form. Only 25 numbered copies were printed on Arches Arjomari-Prioux wove paper, the sole large-paper issue. This very good to near-fine copy therefore represents one of the scarcest forms of Ionesco’s later prose.
Book
€370
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.