Si tu t’imagines
Queneau’s first substantial collected volume of poems spans three decades, from playful early pieces to pivotal 1940s texts. Issued by Gallimard in the Le Point du jour series, it crystallises his poetic voice. It gathers Chêne et chien, La Fête au village, Les Ziaux, L’Instant fatal, and adds nine previously unpublished poems. The register is elastic: parlando, slang, metrical play, and witty trivialisation of the sublime. Everyday logic crackles through linguistic pirouettes. This copy bears a cordial presentation to Max-Pol Fouchet, a key advocate of modern poetry. A cornerstone volume in original state with notable provenance.
Quantity
Queneau, Raymond
Si tu t’imagines
1952 | Paris | Gallimard (NRF)
A cornerstone of Queneau’s poetry, in original state with significant presentation.
Queneau’s first substantial collected volume of poems spans three decades, from playful early pieces to pivotal 1940s texts. Issued by Gallimard in the Le Point du jour series, it crystallises his poetic voice. It gathers Chêne et chien, La Fête au village, Les Ziaux, L’Instant fatal, and adds nine previously unpublished poems. The register is elastic: parlando, slang, metrical play, and witty trivialisation of the sublime. Everyday logic crackles through linguistic pirouettes. This copy bears a cordial presentation to Max-Pol Fouchet, a key advocate of modern poetry. A cornerstone volume in original state with notable provenance.
€610
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-8 (Octavo) approx. 20 × 26 cm
Edition Particulars
“S.P.” review copy with author’s presentation to Max-Pol Fouchet; publisher’s prospectus laid in.
Paper
vélin pur fil Lafuma-Navarre
Inscription
Envoi
Product DETAIL
The selection gives spoken language and punning a philosophical edge. Queneau builds stanzas as miniature logical trials that stay light and exact. Themes include the acrobatics of thought, love and irony, city and routine, time tripping over itself. The nine previously unpublished poems foreshadow later books: cleaner rhythm, drier humour. The book reads like a workshop where prosody and everydayness keep correcting each other.

Michaux, Henri
Ailleurs
*Ailleurs* is a keystone in Michaux’s imaginary ethnographies—an atlas of inner geographies, issued by NRF in 1948. Miguet’s sober bordeaux morocco binding matches the text’s clarity and restraint. With dry precision and wry humor, Michaux details peoples, rituals, and languages that are both alien and oddly familiar. The airy layout paces attention and thought. This copy belongs to the small head issue on vélin pur fil and is notably fresh. A book that relocates the reader in place—a cartography of the mind.
Book
€1,050

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

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