Les Thibault
“This long novel is also the story of a political and social crisis,
fever spikes which finds its sad conclusion int the first world War”.
Very rare unbound and untrimmed proof copy, with handwritten corrections, under a cover hand-titled by Martin du Gard.
8vo of 355 pp., (1) l.
Kraft paper cover hand-titled by Martin du Gard and dated July 1939.
198 x 148 mm.
Martin du Gard, Roger. Les Thibault. Huitième et dernière partie : Epilogue.
Paris, Gallimard, 1939.
“One of the great novels of the time”, “a human document of exceptional value”.
Very rare proof copy, untrimmed and unbound with a 1939 copyright de 1939, with no colophon or justification of issue.
It’s the definitive state with a dozen handwritten corrections in pencil.
The first edition would only been printed on February 14th, 1940.
In 1920, Martin du Gard designs the detailed plan of a large, cyclical novel called Les Thibault.
He left Paris for Normandy in order to write quietly a work which would appear from 1922 to 1940.
A family, clearly typified individuals, diverse social backgrounds painted with exemplary rigour, the presence also of the novelist through the obsessions and worries of his characters, all this transforms the novel into a sum, according to the model of the Tolstoian novel.
The Epilogue transports us in 1918. Antoine, gassed, is being treated in a military clinic… He writes his diary. He notes the progress of evil, and especially the bitter lessons he learned too late from his life… It is on this admirable meditation which, in Anthony’s mind, constitutes the testament destined for this child in whom all the possibilities, all the greatness of the Thibault are found, and which, for the reader, constitutes the pathetic and very human conclusion of the entire work that ends this admirable book.
In this novel, one of the greatest of the time, Martin du Gard, gives to the reader beyond his diary the one of a whole generation who was 30 years old in 1914.
In 1937, Martin du Gard received the Nobel Prize for literature for “the strength and artistic truth of Les Thibault”.
Very rare proof-copy unbound and untrimmed with handwritten corrections under a cover hand-titled by Martin du Gard.
