Léon-Paul Fargue - Haute Solitude [édition originale sur vélin] - 1941

Original edition of Léon-Paul Fargue's (1876-1947) prose collection, beautifully bound in half-chocolate morocco, with a cold-rolled filet along the covers, spine with raised bands highlighted by fillets, author and title in gilt letters. Gilt head. Covers and spine preserved.

375 copies on Rives vellum paper, this one bears no. 171.

Beautiful uncut copy, in very good condition. Well-made binding, minor rubbing at the headbands. Impeccable interior.

Provenance: Ex-libris of Jean-Marie Hottinguer (1803-1866), Swiss-origin banker.

Heir to symbolism, parent of surrealism, extraordinary verbal inventor, Fargue reveals himself as a visionary in his prose poems. He says that Haute solitude is a 'diorama of states of mind'.
In this work from 1941, he re-experiences both the night of prehistoric times and that of the end of the world. And, between the two, this fantastic universe as well, this Paris he loved so much and of which he was the unforgettable Pedestrian. Paris, whose secret geography he traces, accompanied by the ghosts of those dear to him. Paris of sleepless nights, train stations, and cafés.
But each road, each street leads to this high place, unique: solitude. 'I work on my solitude, seeking to direct it through the sea of insomnia into which we have been cast by the long line of the dead...' (Gallimard)

Léon-Paul Fargue
Haute Solitude
Paris, Éditions Émile-Paul, 1941.
In-12, Relié, 130 x 190 mm, [6] 269 [6] pages