L'angoisse du roi Salomon

Octavo, 343 pp., (3) pp. Paperback, untrimmed.

238 x 168 mm.

Ajar, Émile (Romain Gary). The Anxiety of King Solomon.
Mercure de France, Paris, 1979.

First edition.

One of 45 copies printed on Arches laid paper, the only large paper copies.
It bears the number 14.

“I'm warning you that things will not happen this way. It's true that I just turned eighty-five. But from there to thinking I'm null and void, that's a step I won't allow you to take. There's something I want to tell you. I want to tell you, my young friends, that I did not escape the Nazis for four years, the Gestapo, deportation, roundups for the Vel' d'Hiv', the gas chambers and extermination just to let myself be taken by some so-called natural third-rate death, under shabby physiological pretexts. The best weren't able to get me, so you can bet I won't be taken down by routine. I didn't escape the Holocaust for nothing, my little friends. I intend to live to a ripe old age, make no mistake about it!”

The last novel signed Ajar, The Anxiety of King Solomon was praised by critics upon its release in February 1979.

“I think a smart guy should try to be as miserable as possible his whole life, then he wouldn't be afraid of dying.”
Jean, a Parisian taxi driver, gets by with odd jobs and loves diving into dictionaries. One day, he meets Mr. Salomon Rubinstein, eighty-four years old, with life ahead of him and the king of trousers.”

The last novel by Romain Gary under the pseudonym Émile Ajar, The Anxiety of King Solomon perhaps helps us bear our world and its parade of disorders.

Beautiful copy, one of the 45 on large paper, preserved in wrappers, as new.