Traité du style
€1,150.00
Published in 1928 by the NRF, Louis Aragon’s *Traité du style* is a bracing, polemical essay in which “style” is treated not as ornament but as an ethical—and implicitly political—stance. It stands among the most provocative texts of his early, still fiercely experimental period, poised between Dada swagger and Surrealist rigor. In aphoristic bursts, ironic definitions, and sudden reversals, Aragon dismantles the rhetoric of his day and casts the writer as a figure of risk and testimony. The first edition was issued in a deluxe “tirage de tête” of only 100 numbered copies on vergé Lafuma-Navarre, reserved for NRF bibliophiles. This copy is additionally personalized, printed “pour le Dr. Sourdel”, and numbered XLVIII. As both statement and artifact, it is a cornerstone for tracing Aragon’s intellectual momentum in the late 1920s.
Quantity
Aragon, Louis
ILLUSTRATORS
ILLUSTRATORS
ILLUSTRATORS
Traité du style
1928 | Paris | NRF
The NRF first edition on Lafuma-Navarre, personalized for Dr. Sourdel: a prime copy for the Aragon collector.
Published in 1928 by the NRF, Louis Aragon’s *Traité du style* is a bracing, polemical essay in which “style” is treated not as ornament but as an ethical—and implicitly political—stance. It stands among the most provocative texts of his early, still fiercely experimental period, poised between Dada swagger and Surrealist rigor. In aphoristic bursts, ironic definitions, and sudden reversals, Aragon dismantles the rhetoric of his day and casts the writer as a figure of risk and testimony. The first edition was issued in a deluxe “tirage de tête” of only 100 numbered copies on vergé Lafuma-Navarre, reserved for NRF bibliophiles. This copy is additionally personalized, printed “pour le Dr. Sourdel”, and numbered XLVIII. As both statement and artifact, it is a cornerstone for tracing Aragon’s intellectual momentum in the late 1920s.
€1,150
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-8 (Octavo) approx. 20 × 26 cm
Edition Particulars
One of 100 numbered copies on vergé Lafuma-Navarre (deluxe issue reserved for NRF bibliophiles); this copy made for Dr. Sourdel.
Print Run
100
Copy Number
No. XLVIII
Paper
papier vergé Lafuma-Navarre
Inscription
No inscription
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Edition Particulars:
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Condition Report:
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Product DETAIL
In *Traité du style*, Aragon asks what language can do once it stops serving “fine writing” and becomes an instrument of thought. He attacks clichés, academic rhetoric, and easy lyricism, arguing for a kind of writing that breaks open reality. The book hovers between essay, pamphlet, and paradox: a chain of propositions that may contradict one another to keep the reader alert. For Aragon, style is bound to responsibility and choice—a stance toward one’s time. It reads at once as a literary laboratory and a moral provocation.

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