Jules Laforgue / Raymond Pagès - Les Complaintes - L'Imitation de Notre-Dame la Lune - 1981

The Complaints, followed by The Imitation of Our Lady the Moon, by Jules Laforgue

Numbered copy

The Complaints appeared in 1885, then The Imitation of Our Lady the Moon in 1886, both self-published during the poet’s lifetime. The first collection distorts the popular form of the ballad with biting irony, a taste for scholarly pastiche, and deliberate dissonances. The second, written in Berlin at the beginning of 1885, is placed under the sign of the moon. It consists of parodic variations and litanies where the adoration of the star becomes mockery, carried by the recurring figure of Pierrot. The two books revolve around fleeing life, women, and boredom, with a free tone and rhythm that heralds free verse and would influence Apollinaire as well as T. S. Eliot. This edition appeared at the Imprimerie nationale in 1981 in the collection “Lettres françaises.” The text, established and annotated by Pierre Reboul, is accompanied by illustrations by Raymond Pagès.

Jules Laforgue was born in Montevideo in 1860 and moved to France at ten. He frequented Parisian literary circles, then became reader to Empress Augusta in Berlin, where he wrote much of his work. He died of tuberculosis in 1887, at twenty-seven, leaving also the Moralités légendaires, published the same year, and posthumous collections.

Raymond Pagès (1923-2014), painter and poster designer, became known for his advertising posters, notably for Air France, before lending his line to several bibliophile editions.

Paris, Imprimerie nationale, collection “Lettres françaises”, 1981; in-8; 296 pages, illustrations by Raymond Pagès. Full burgundy leather binding, gilt top edge. Very beautiful exterior and interior condition.