Octave MIRBEAU et Léon WERTH.

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  4. Lot n° 72 
Lot n° 72
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Octave MIRBEAU et Léon WERTH.
[Dingo]. No place or date [1909-1913]. Autograph manuscript in-4 of 158 leaves written on verso, mounted on strong paper in-folio: black half-maroquin with corners, spine, case (Loutrel). Complete autograph manuscript of Octave's last novel Mirbeau. Two-thirds written by Mirbeau, it was reworked with the help of his friend and disciple Léon Werth. It is carefully written, with corrections, erasures, strikethroughs and typographer's marks. Begun the day after the battle of Le Foyer, Dingo had a long and difficult genesis because of Mirbeau's state of health. The last three chapters were written under his dictation by Léon Werth: "Mirbeau, who at that time could no longer compose or write, asked me in a friendly manner to finish the book. However, among the pages written in my hand, those relating to the hunting of hounds were copied by me, and are a reproduction of an article by Mirbeau that appeared in Paris-journal this month. The manuscript, as you have it in your hands, is the original and only complete manuscript by Dingo," the contributor specifies in a signed autograph letter of March 1, 1935, mounted at the top. A third of the manuscript is thus written by Léon Werth, who also contributed to a few passages composed before his participation. Bearing the trace of later scissors cuts and reassemblies, this manuscript thus provides a great deal of information on the genesis of Mirbeau's last novel. The manuscript offers, on pages 49 to 54, a passage that has remained unpublished: a violent charge against Jules Claretie, written in the heat of the moment following the battle of Le Foyer. "I am impatiently waiting for my book to appear," the author wrote to Maurice Feraudy in mid-November 1909: "There is a portrait of Claretie in it, which I think is very good. Not violent, kind, but of such cruelty that the bugger will die." Now, as the years passed, the grudge had visibly dulled. The novel was to appear in May 1913 amputated from the murderous passage, probably in the course of composition, the numbering having been corrected by a typographer. It is now published on the website of the Association Mirbeau (https://mirbeau.asso.fr). From the library of Colonel Daniel Sickles (IV, 1990, n° 1310).
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