GIDE, André.

Lot 1442
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Estimation :
1500 - 2000 EUR
GIDE, André.
The Caves of the Vatican. Sotie by the author of Paludes. Paris, Nouvelle Revue Française, 1914. 2 volumes in one in-8 volume [224 x 140] with a portrait, 282 pp. 282, (3) ff. the first and the last blank; 293 pp, (5) ff. the second blank : beige morocco, gilt roulette and vertical cold fillet on the edge of the boards, gilt, cold and palladium monogram on the first board, smooth spine decorated with a vertical palladium roulette, cold fillet and gilt roulette on the inside, gilt head, untrimmed, cover and spine kept (J. Anthoine Legrain). First edition, dedicated to Jacques Copeau: published without author's name, it was printed at 550 numbered copies on Papeteries d'Arches' Chandelle paper. It is decorated with a portrait of the author engraved in soft varnish by Paul-Albert Laurens, printed on japon. One of the 500 copies numbered in Arabic numerals (n° 323). Avant-garde work by the construction in mirror games of the story, Les Caves du Vatican parodies the novelistic tradition and turns to the black novel with the "gratuitous crime" of Lafcadio. If the surrealists were fascinated by the provocative book, Paul Claudel never forgave the author for having mocked the Church nor for having introduced a discreetly pederastic passage. (Vignes & Boudrot, Bibliographie des éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française, n° 54.) A very good copy. The paper of this edition is subject to foxing; the present copy is practically free of it.
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