Signé; Maurice Barrès - Une Enquête aux Pays du Levant [ex. numéroté avec L.A.S.] - 1923

Original edition, enriched with an autograph letter signed by Maurice Barrès: [Thank you, dear Mr. Lavaud, for these serious and melodious verses which I read or reread with admiration and pleasure. I shake your hand, Barrès. March 17, 1920].
(Probably addressed to Guy Lavaud, (1883 - 1958) French symbolist poet).

One of 1150 copies on pure rag paper from the Lafuma paper mills, this one bears the number 283.

Complete in two volumes, bound in elegant half-morocco ebony with raised bands, spines decorated with the author's name and title in gilt lettering. Gilt edges. Untrimmed copy. Original covers and spines preserved.

In very good condition. Solid, well-made bindings. Minor rubbing to the joints and edges. Discreet marks on the covers, and a small white stain on the back cover of one volume.
Paper slightly yellowed, occasional foxing.

The account of Maurice Barrès' journey, undertaken in May-June 1914, was not put on sale until November 28, 1923, a few days before his death on December 4.

Disdaining all the clichés of romantic orientalism, and breaking with the romantic tradition which he had just illustrated (A Garden on the Orontes, 1922), he shows that knowledge of the spiritual Orient is essential for self-knowledge.

Maurice Barrès
"An investigation in the Levant"
Paris, Librairie Plon, 1923
IV-312 + 242 pages. Complete
In12 (12x18cm)