Paul Claudel - Histoire de Tobie et de Sara [EO sur héliona, cartonnage Paul Bonet] - 1942

Paul Claudel. Story of Tobie and Sara

Gallimard, Paris, 1942, (18.1 x 12 cm), 132 pages, decorated publisher's binding, with dust jacket.

Original edition limited to 1,030 copies, of which 900 are bound according to the model by Paul Bonet, numbered on a Héliona paper from Papeteries Navarre.

Excellent copy in superb condition, very fresh, with a perfect interior, complete with its jacket.

The piece is part of an approach to exegetical theatre, where Claudel comments on, rewrites, and quotes the Bible in its entirety, in an experience of analogical poetics that never questions the theatricality of the work.
She explores fundamental themes such as the conception of drama, the relations between Writing and writing, the role of Israel in History, and the meaning of love.
The plot is based on the biblical story: Tobiah the Elder, blind and persecuted, sends his son Tobiah the Younger to recover ten talents of silver lent to Raguël, the father of Sarah, a young woman tormented by seven demons who kill all her suitors.
Thus, young Tobie, aided by the angel Raphaël, catches a fish whose heart and liver he uses to free Sara from her demons.
The Trees of Paradise then celebrate their wedding, and young Tobie restores his father's sight through the faith of the Christic fish.

The Story of Tobie and Sara is a three-act play by Paul Claudel, composed in June-July 1938 and first published by Gallimard in April 1942.
Titled 'moral in three acts,' this work is inspired by the biblical Book of Tobit and constitutes a dramatic and exegetical adaptation of this text.
Claudel and his unprecedented approach to total theater, exegesis, the dreamlike quality of storytelling, and biblical commentary, making this play a true laboratory for avant-garde total theater.
She uses a wide variety of registers, ranging from burlesque to scenes of pathos and lyricism, and blends elements of dance, mime, music, cinema, and theater, notably drawing inspiration from the Ballets Russes.