John Ruskin / Marcel Proust - Sésame et les Lys - 1906

RUSKIN (John)

Sesame and the Lilies. Treasures of kings. Gardens of queens.
Translation, note and preface by Marcel Proust.

Paris, at Société du Mercure de France, 1906.

1 volume small 8vo (18 x 11.5 cm), blue Bradel binding (old binding), armorials on the spine, initial at the tail of the spine and ex-libris on the upper cover of Doctor Jacques Le Grand, 224-[2] pages (complete). Small head gallery on pages 81 to 116 (without affecting the text), small tear in the margins of pages 7 to 10, angular loss to the title piece, yellowed paper as is often the case, pencil marks in the margins of the preface. Generally good condition nevertheless.

First edition of the translation and Marcel Proust’s preface.

Copy on edition paper, numbered 741 (twelve copies printed on Hollande paper).

The second Proustian attempt to acclimate John Ruskin’s work in France, published on the eve of the inauguration of the Recherche project. Proust had already shown his talent as a translator – with his mother’s help – on another work by the leader of the English aesthetic school, Amiens Bible (Paris, Mercure de France, 1904).

It was his friend Robert de Billy who introduced Marcel to the cults of Ruskinian Gothic religion, thus lighting a flame that the young writer would continually nourish through numerous artistic pilgrimages undertaken with Reynaldo Hahn, Marie Nordlinger, Emmanuel Bibesco or Bertrand de Fénelon. The first Proust article on John Ruskin appeared in 1900 in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts.

Sesame and the Lilies contains the translation of two lectures. The first, Treasures of kings, was first published in April–May 1905 in Les Arts de la vie. The preface, entitled “On Reading,” appeared in La Renaissance latine on 15 June 1905. This roughly fifty-page essay, in which the translator recalls his memories as a young reader – criticizing, in passing, the theories of his idol Ruskin – is of capital importance for the history of the formation of the Proustian text. After revision, it would be folded into the Recherche and published separately in Pastiches and Mélanges, in 1919, under the title “Reading Days.”

PROVENANCE:
The Doctor Jacques Le Grand was a prominent French surgeon, who died in 1934. He primarily worked as a surgeon in the Rouen hospitals and also held the position of former anatomy aide in Paris. He is known for his numerous contributions, titles and scientific works primarily on anatomy and surgical pathology

Rare copy.