Description

“THE PLAGUE NEVER DIES OR DISAPPEARS FOR GOOD”: FIRST EDITION OF CAMUS’ LA PESTE

CAMUS, Albert. La Peste. [Paris]: Gallimard, (1947). Small octavo, original decorative paper boards.

First edition, number 1501 of 2080 copies on Alfa Navarre paper (of a total first printing of 2355) of Camus’ gripping allegory of the German occupation, presentation association copy warmly inscribed on the half title: “Au Docteur Adrien Borel qu s’interesse aux pestes de lâme avec le souvenir et la sympathie d’Albert Camus.”

“Camus is not only a giant among French moralists—an important and characteristic strain in French literature—but he stands as one of the most profound thinkers of the 20th century as well” (Pribic, Nobel Laureates in Literature, 75). “The Plague is parable and sermon, and should be considered as such. To criticize it by standards which apply to most fiction would be to risk condemning it for moralizing, which is exactly where it is strongest? There are certain things which need to be said now, without care for the future, and these are said in The Plague” (Stephen Spender in Books of the Century, 159). Camus won the Nobel Prize for Literature the year this volume was published. Connolly, The Modern Movement 95. Camus’ inscription translates as: “To Dr. Adrien Borel, who concerns himself with the plagues of the soul. With the remembrance and sympathies of Albert Camus.” Dr. Borel was a founder of the Société Psychoanalytique de Paris. Borel a friend and colleague to numerous artists and writers, and served as the analyst for several notable people, including Georges Bataille, Réné Laforgue, and Michel Leiris.

Very lightest scattered foxing to periphery only, with spine very minimally toned. A near-fine copy with an exceptional association and inscription.