Les Plaisirs et les Jours
Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1896. First edition. x, 273 pp. Contemporary half morocco over marbled paper boards, spine with four raised bands, gilt compartments, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. Original wrappers bound in, original spine wrapper bound in at rear. Exterior hinges and edges rubbed. Interior clean.
Drawings by Madeleine Lemaire, with scores by Reynaldo Hahn and a preface by Anatole France. The first book by the still unknown 25-year-old author, a collection of prose poems and short stories. The book’s luxurious format and high price caused poor sales, and as of 1918 the publisher Gaston Calmann-Lévy wrote to Proust that 1100 copies of the print run of 1500 copies remained unsold. Despite the financial issues, the collection already bears the seeds of Proust’s unmistakable style, which would of course come to full flower in À la Recherche du Temps Perdu, whose first volume would not be published until seventeen years later. Item #2586
Price: $1,250.00