Maurice Rollinat - Paysages et Paysans [avec lettre autographe signée de Maurice Rollinat à Léon Cladel] - 1899-1899

Maurice Rollinat — Landscapes and Peasants — Eugène Fasquelle, 1899

Original edition – Old binding – Signed autograph letter inserted




General description

Maurice Rollinat – Landscapes and Peasants, Poems
Paris, Charpentier Library, Eugène Fasquelle, 1899.
Black half-basane binding, spine decorated with gold floral motifs, with the title and author gilded.
Printed covers kept
Signed handwritten letter by Maurice Rollinat, attached to the volume.


Physical description of the book

Format in-12 (19 x 12 cm)

Period binding: half black morocco, smooth spine decorated with small gilt fleurs-de-lis, gilt title and author on the spine 'Rollinat – Paysages et Paysans.' Significant wear and epidermal damage on the spine and edges. Dusty leather. Frayed headbands.
Black and white marbled paper spots typical of the late 19th century. Overall, it remains quite solid despite this.

Very good interior condition, with slightly yellowed edges as is common for the paper of that era. No damage, non-brittle paper.

Original covers preserved, bibliophilic value.

Pagination: about 332 pages.

Joint


Signed autograph letter by Maurice Rollinat

Original handwritten letter, signed, approximately 20.5 x 13 cm in size. One sheet measuring 26 cm wide by 20.5 cm high, folded in half along the height to form two pages of 13 cm by 20.5 cm. Written on the front of the first page. About 22 lines.

Antique laid paper, with two original horizontal and vertical folds (mailing folds).

Perfectly legible brown ink, fine handwriting typical of Rollinat.

Address to Leon Cladel
Friendly and trusting content: Rollinat discusses an approach with the publisher Charpentier, mentions his concerns, and concludes with well-wishes for his family.





March 13

My dear Cladel

I saw Charpentier and informed him of your commission. He seemed to take the matter very well and did not make any comments that could cause you the slightest concern.

So, be sure to take care of yourself on that side and take energetic care of yourself so you can try to see me as soon as possible, for example next Thursday. Let me know with a word, and I will inform Seres, and we will have lunch together.
Goodbye, my dear Cladel.
Best health, I wish you all my heart – a loving tribute to Madame Cladel, a warm hello to the little girls, and receive a vigorous handshake from me.

Your gratefulness
Maurice Rollinat

(Add at the bottom of the page)
I think I will see Charpentier this morning and talk to him again about your case.
I just left his office: he will write to you today.






Interest and value of the letter

Literary letter concerning editorial procedures with the publisher Georges Charpentier (Charpentier-Fasquelle house).

Good condition: a few minor issues to note, however: tears without missing parts following the horizontal central fold of the letter, over two centimeters at both ends of the fold. Tear with a missing part on the second sheet, but this is not serious since the sheet is blank (see photos).

About Maurice Rollinat (1846-1903)

Visionary, dark, contemplative poet, hallucinating pianist, friend of Mallarmé and Huysmans, who nicknamed him 'the poet of nerves.'
Alternating between pastoral lyricism (Landscapes and Peasants) and macabre poetry (Neuroses), Rollinat embodies the fin de siècle romanticism, symbolist aesthetics, and modern anxiety.




Landscapes and Peasants — content

A deeply rural collection, vibrant with light and melancholy, where Rollinat celebrates the seasons, solitude, villages, ponds, 'the silent misery of men and beasts.'



About
Léon Alpinien Cladel was born on March 13, 1835, in Montauban. He comes from a family.
Catholic of artisans and farmers of Quercy. His father, Pierre Cladel, was a harness maker.
a highly valued and profitable profession at the time. He lived in Lafrançaise at the Moulin de
Lalande on the Lauzerte road. After a large number of lawsuits, he ended up ruined and did not
leaves to his son the furniture of the Moulin and an apartment in Montauban. The rest of
His assets are sold to pay off his debts. He begins studies in Toulouse.
Right that he abandons very quickly.
Léon Cladel then moved to Paris at the age of twenty. A man of letters, he built himself up.
a solid reputation as a naturalist novelist whose main subject is the people. He
He also likes to highlight his Quercy peasant origins. He is making a name for himself.
First, within a limited circle, through his first novel, The Ridiculous Martyrs, preface
by Charles Baudelaire
Then he returns to live in his native Quercy, where he writes about peasant life. He resides and
Written in Montauban, Villenouvelle neighborhood, which later becomes a place of residence.
Summer for his family. Returning to Paris, Léon Cladel published the two novels that are related to this.
considered among his best works, Le Bouscassié (1869) and La Fête votive
de Saint-Bartholomée Porte-Glaive (1872).



Highlights for buyers

Original edition (1899)
Antique binding with preserved cover
Signed handwritten letter, complete, legible, dated.
Double interest: book + manuscript, ready to collect or frame.
Rollinat, a rare author in the bibliophile market.