Les Feuilles d'Automne
“This century was two years old.”
Rare first edition of this masterpiece by Victor Hugo.
A precious copy preserved in its contemporary decorated romantic binding.
209 x 135 mm.
Hugo, Victor. Les feuilles d'automne.
Paris, Eugène Renduel, 1832.
First edition, very rare, printed in only 500 copies in 1832.
“Rare without edition indication” (M. Clouzot). (Case of the present copy).
“A major work among Victor Hugo’s poems, rare” (Carteret).
“Very rare in fine condition” (Carteret) – (One of the finest copies recorded).
The nature of this collection seems to be defined by the author himself in his Preface: “Fallen leaves, dead leaves, like all autumn leaves. This is not poetry of turmoil and noise; these are serene and peaceful verses, verses as everyone makes or dreams, verses of family, of the home, of private life: verses from the soul’s interior. It is a melancholic and resigned glance, cast here and there on what is, especially on what has been. It is the echo of those thoughts, often inexpressible, which are vaguely awakened in our minds by the thousand objects of creation that suffer or languish around us: a fading flower, a falling star, a setting sun, a roofless church, a street overgrown with grass; or the unexpected arrival of a nearly forgotten school friend, though always loved in some obscure corner of the heart; or the contemplation of those strong-willed men who break destiny or are broken by it; or the passage of one of those fragile beings who are ignorant of the future, sometimes a child, sometimes a king. They are, finally, the vanity of plans and hopes, love at twenty, love at thirty, what is sad in happiness, that infinity of painful things of which our years are made.”
Sentimental poetry, then, following closely the battles of the first years of Romanticism and counting among its inspirers both Lamartine (to whom one of these poems is dedicated) and Sainte-Beuve of Life, Poems and Thoughts of Joseph Delorme. Never has Victor Hugo been happier in expression, more tender and true than when he speaks of his childhood. The graces, the games of children, regrets, family affections have never been sung by this poet with such pathos: “Now still young and often tested,/ I have more than one memory deeply engraved, /And many things of the past can be seen / In these folds of my brow etched by my thoughts.”
His song thus opens with this now-famous half-line: “This century was two years old!” This epic tendency leads him to recall his father’s life, a general of the First Empire, and to return again and again to the Napoleonic epic. Thus, to Lamartine’s mellow and gentle voice responds this ardent and hoarse one: the Legitimist of 1820 is about to become the bard of great historic convulsions, the poet of the tragedy of peoples. While nature continues to make his “crystal soul” vibrate, placed by God “at the center of everything like a sounding echo,” it is men and events that will give Victor Hugo a new voice. So, this “peaceful” collection ends with an apocalyptic vision of Europe still trembling under tyranny and preparing for revolt (“And I add to my lyre a brazen string!”). Sainte-Beuve thus judged Les Feuilles d’automne: “Exquisite for those in the profession, original and essential among the author’s other works, the collection of Les Feuilles d’automne is also in perfect harmony with this age of confused renewal.” The style and rhythm here have reached their full perfection. The poet surpasses himself in ease and naturalness. Among the poems that have become famous, we should mention “Prière pour tous,” a prayer recited by a child before his father, which allows the latter to evoke, with immense pity, the living and the dead and to commune with all humanity.
Precious and beautiful copy, one of the rare tracked examples preserved in its contemporary decorated Romantic binding, large-margined and without foxing.
