Rare first edition of the first of the 1st novel by Julien Gracq.
Printed on publishing paper. (Only 3 extremely rare examples on Alfa have been taken from this book).

‎September 1938. Julien Gracq goes to the José Corti bookshop, rue de Médicis, to buy books. Seeing Retour de Guyane by Léon Damas on a table, he understands that he is at a bookseller-publisher and therefore submits his first manuscript, Au Château d'Argol, which Gallimard has just refused (in his reading note , Benjamin Crémieux compares the style of Gracq, to justify the refusal, to that of Charles du Bos). Corti agrees to publish it, subject to a contribution to the costs. The book was released in December 1938, printed in 1,200 copies. At the end of 1939, 130 copies will have been sold. The book will not be reprinted, with the seals of 1938, until 1945. The slight error of composition will then be corrected which means that in the copies of the original edition, we had to add a blank sheet to prevent the book from ends with a printed page, with the print finish at the bottom of page 184. ‎

This early work, which appears as a long story in the posterity of Edgar Poe, enjoyed a remarkable reception to which Breton's favor was undoubtedly not unrelated.

AUTHOR: Julien Gracq
TITLE: ‎ At the castle of Argol
PUBLISHER: Paris, Editions José Corti s.d. 1939. In-12 paperback of 184 pages in the format 12 x 18.5 cm.

Paperback, illustrated and decorated cover. Accident in the head with small tears (max 1 cm) on the cover and the first 5 sheets. Back a little faded caps a little damaged. Burnished interior.