Beschreibung:

Marcel-Valentin- Louis-Eugène-Georges PROUST Premières épreuves de Du côté de chez Swann Le jeu perdu des placards corrigés Placards numérotés 1-29 ( première partie: "Combray") et 29-52 (deuxième partie: "Un amour de Swann"), abondamment révisés par l'auteur et renvoyés à l'éditeur, avec des repentirs sur béquets et paperoles De Les intermittences du coeur à A la recherche du temps perdu De Le temps perdu via Charles Swann à Du côté de chez Swann Entre Mayenne et Paris Du 31 mars au 14 mai 1913 "Je suis en train de corriger mes premières épreuves ... Mes corrections jusqu'ici ... ne sont pas des corrections. Il ne reste pas une ligne sur 20 du texte primitif ... c'est rayé, corrigé dans toutes les parties blanches que je peux trouver, et je colle des papiers en haut, en bas, à droite, à gauche ..." (lettre à Vaudoyer 12-iv-1913, le jour de la correction du placard 15) " En réalité le texte n'est pas extrêmement changé, car tout ce que j'ai ajouté, je l'ai généralement rebiffé ensuite. Mais il en résulte sinon un changement de dimensions ... du moins un inextricable gâchis qui va donner à vos ouvriers une peine dont je suis désolé et confus ..." (lettre à Grasset 19-iv-1913, lors de la correction du placard 20) 73. PROUST, Marcel (Auteuil 1871-1922 Paris). Extensively revised galley first proofs of "Combray" and "Un amour de Swann", the first (complete) and second (almost complete) parts of A la recherche du temps perdu: Du côté de chez Swann . Mayenne: Charles Colin [for Marcel Proust and Bernard Grasset (Paris)], 31 March - 14 May 1913 (printer's date-stamps). 52 oblong broadsheets (380 x 555mm), galleys numbered 1-52 ( placards or "planches" ), printed on one side, each divided in 8 typographical columns (139 x 86mm) of 37 lines. At least two stocks of wove proof paper, roman type (75mm). ELABORATE AUTOGRAPH CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS IN INK THROUGHOUT, 28 sheets with a total of 45 paste-ons ( béquets ) and multiple continuous paste-ons ( paperoles ); more than a dozen columns or partial columns cut out and transferred to the same, neighbouring or distant galley sheets; five sheets constructed from two sets. CONDITION: Lacking half of sheet 50 (columns 5-8) and full galley sheets 53-95 (the last column of "Un amour de Swann"; all of "Noms de pays", of which sheets 53-59 and 74-75 were published as the novel's short third part "Noms de pays: Le Nom" and the others remained unpublished until their text was reworked to form the first part "Autour de Mme Swann" of the second novel A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs [NRF, 1918]). Paste-on at pl. 52 defective (with loss of text), some small holes, cuts, slight separation at several folds, traces of glue, minor discolouration, a few small stains, and two short marginal tears in sheet 13, but THE FRAGILE SHEETS AND PASTE-ONS ARE EXTREMELY WELL-PRESERVED, some even in fresh condition. BINDING: The galley sheets have been very skilfully mounted -- most at the edges only -- into a large oblong modern album of thick white paper, bound in fine French gold-tooled brown morocco à la bradel , signed Leca, with matching slipcase. PROVENANCE: Marcel Proust bequeathed with the rest of his literary archive to his younger brother -- Dr Robert Proust (1873-1935) -- separated from the archive by Dr Proust's widow, Marthe Dubois-Amyot, as were some other important papers and objects at that time (the main archive was acquired in 1962 by the Bibliothèque nationale from Dr Proust's daughter, Suzy Mante, who had previously offered it to the Pierpont Morgan Library, Harvard University Library, and the University of Texas Library; the latter had agreed to purchase when the BN intervened) -- private collections (binding). THE DISCOVERY OF THIS LONG-LOST SET OF CORRECTED GALLEY PROOFS REVEALS A CRUCIAL STAGE IN THE CREATIVE PROCESS OF THE GREATEST FRENCH NOVEL OF THE 20TH CENTURY. It was unkown to the editors of the latest Pléiade text (1987) and no future critical edition of the work ma