GENET, Jean.

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Lot n° 1372
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Result : 114 400EUR
GENET, Jean.
The Spectre of the Heart [Funeral Parlors]. [1944-1945]. Partially autograph corrected typescript mounted on tabs in a folio volume: modern unbleached cloth, slipcase. PRECIOUS CORRECTED TYPESCRIPT BY JEAN GENET, WITH 99 AUTOGRAPH ADDITIONS: IT OFFERS A PRIMITIVE STATE OF THE NOVEL AND SEEMS TO BE "THE OLDEST VERSION OF THE TEXT AVAILABLE TO DATE" (EMMANUELLE LAMBERT). The set consists of: - 205 typed pages numbered from 1 to 204 (page 46 is missing, page [49] is not numbered, one page 79bis, pages 94bis and ter correspond to pages 95 and 96, pages 144 to 149 have been placed after page 171bis and renumbered 171 ter to 8) The corrections, in blue or black ink, are sometimes on a single word, sometimes on several lines with autograph additions. Some leaves have been cut out and reassembled. - 99 autograph additions, numbered or lettered, on sheets of various sizes, mostly on graph paper, one of which has working notes on the back. One finds at the top: - An original drawing by Jean Cocteau for a draft cover on a page in-4, in black ink, on the verso of a sheet with the address of the Maison du Bailli, in Milly-la-Forêt [Cocteau's property acquired in 1947] - An autograph title sheet signed on pink cardstock bearing: Le Spectre du coeur / Jean Genet. This first known version of Pompes funèbres offers numerous and important differences with the published text: it comes from the archives of Paul Morihien, the publisher of the second edition of the novel in 1948. In a letter addressed to Marc Barbezat, Genet evokes the novel under its primitive title as early as November 1943 and reports the misfortune which struck him: the destruction of his manuscript. He resumed writing in March 1944, but his work was disrupted by the death of his lover Jean Decarnin, who was killed by a militiaman the following August, during the liberation of Paris. When Jean Genet entrusted his manuscript to Gallimard, which gave a first clandestine edition in 1947 under the fictitious address of "à Bikini, aux dépens de quelques amateurs", it was under the definitive title of Pompes funèbres, which also accompanied the extracts published in Les Temps modernes (December 1945). A year later, in 1948, Paul Morihien gave a second edition out of trade. The novel was first published in bookstores in Volume III of Genet's Complete Works by Gallimard in 1953. (Genet, Romans et Poèmes, Gallimard, La Pléiade, 2021, pp. 1456-1461.) From the archives of Paul Morihien, to whom Genet had first ceded the rights to the novel, this typescript has been identified by the editors of the Pléiade as the oldest version available to date, based on the typing, the corrections of the typescripts and later manuscripts, some of which bear other titles (L'OEil de Gabès or La Vie inférieure) and, of course, on the organization of the text itself. According to Pierre-Marie Héron, this is the version read by Jean Cocteau in January 1945. Jean Genet had thought of dedicating his book to Jean Cocteau, who would have suggested the final title, before changing his mind in order to pay homage to Jean Decarnin. (Genet et Cocteau : traces d'une amitié littéraire in Cahiers Jean Cocteau, n°1, 2002) The story begins on a first sheet, unpaginated, titled "Le spectre du coeur", announcing Jean Decarnin's death, with variations from the final version: On the barricades of the nineteenth of August nineteen hundred and forty-four, by the bullet of a charming militiaman, adorned with his grace and age, the quiet death of a twenty-year-old communist shames my life. Here is a brief portrait of him: his hair was blond, and curly, which he wore very long. His eyes were blue or green but extraordinarily clear. [I sometimes set foot on these red ruins and I have the impression, so delicate, discreet, perfumed with humility, that I am putting my sole on his face. His name was Jean Decarnin. The story is then divided into chapters, whose titles will disappear in the final version, and whose arrangement will vary: L'OEil de Gabès, Jean Decarnin mon tendre amant, La Soirée au cinéma, Raison des fleurs, Raisons de la France et de l'ombre, Reprenez votre rang, P aris la nuit, Paris la nuit (suite), La diane, Paris la nuit (suite), Au cri de Dieu le veut, Noir de foudre, Erik seul [in capitals], Au large de Terre-Neuve, Vol d'abeilles, Conseil, Le cortège somnambule, Presentation of Paulo, Paulo [in capitals], Sous la terre légère, Encore Decarnin [name in capitals], Le cortège, Hitler ou moi, Le Cimetière, L'Intérieur du tombeau, Hitler seul [in capitals], Erik seul [in capitals], Erik et Riton [in capitals], Nocturne [in capitals], Le Curé [in capitals], La Chance chancelle, Le Festin
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