Sold by Montgomery Rare Books & Manuscripts IOBA, Amherst, MA, U.S.A.
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AbeBooks Seller since June 27, 2023
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Two apparently unpublished Sonnets and a personal letter from the young age of 22. While the recipient is not identified, this small collectin indicates that de Montesquiou was a well practiced poet and communicator at a relatively young age. Both sonnets are 6.75" x 8.25", written in fountain pen, four stanzas (4-4-3-3). One is titled "La Souvenance"; an archaic, almost precious word for remembrance, which he elevates by giving it a capital letter. The poem reads as an elegant farewell to ambition and anticipation, and an embrace of the richness of what has already been lived. The next is titled: "Guerre à la paress" (War on Laziness). This is a characteristically witty piece by de Montesquiou, The sonnet's central irony is delightful - a man of leisure preaching industriousness, urging the reader to pick any creative vocation, so long as they pick one. The final couplet, with its list of artistic callings capped by the pragmatic injunction to simply choose, has a very Montesquiou flavour: grand posturing with a sharp, comic landing. Robert de Montesquiou, (1855 - 1921), born to Thierry, Comte de Montesquiou-Fezensac, and his wife Pauline (nee Duroux), descended from one of the oldest aristocratic families in France, and proudly counted among his distant ancestors Charles de Batz-Castelmore d'Artagnan, whose life was dramatized by Alexandre Dumas in Les Trois Mousquetaires. The flamboyant aesthete and poet inspired Proust's Baron de Charlus. He once declared that it was his desire to be the most photographed man in the world during the nascent years of the camera. Society life inculcated a keen aesthetic sense in the count, and he grew to prize luxury, exoticism, refinement, and good taste. Throughout France's "Belle Epoque" Montesquiou gained a reputation as a dandy, literary snob, tastemaker, and critic, and was known to style himself "Professor of Beauty" and "Prince of Decadence." His circle at times included such artistic, literary, and celebrity figures as Maurice Barres, Sarah Bernhardt, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Alphonse Daudet, Gabriel Faure, Edmond de Goncourt, Stephane Mallarme, and Edouard Manet, as well as--most notably--Marcel Proust. Montesquiou was himself a poet, and published several volumes of his own work, including Les Chauves-souris, clairs-obscurs, Le Chef des odeurs suaves, and Les Hortensias bleus. His poetry was not particularly well received by critics, but is notable for its intricate aesthetic presentation: Les Chauves-souris was sent to his close friends in a small box wrapped in silk, and with a dust jacket designed by Whistler featuring a cloud of bats. Montesquiou even produced his own stationary with his by then signature "bat" emblem. Besides his own literary output, Montesquiou is notable in literary history for the access that he provided to French society circles for writers such as Proust, and for the enduring (and often satirical) portraits and caricatures of him that emerged in the writings of more notable authors. Just as Montesquiou's ancestor served as an inspiration for Dumas, the Count himself was the model for des Esseintes in Joris-Karl Huysmans' A Rebors (published 1884) and for the Baron de Charlus in Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu (published 1913-1927). Proust--who also based the character of the Duchesse de Guermantes on Montesquiou's cousin, Elisabeth, probably offended Montesquiou with his interpretation, and a rift grew between the two men. Paris, 28th March 1877. Dear Sir, I am most touched by your kind remembrance and by the favorable reception you extend to the fruits of my labors. Please note, I beg you, that among its countless contributions, my vast work offers its readers every meter of our poetry. I am going to send you Hercule; but the great distance it will have to travel makes me fear for it all manner of mishaps and disappointments. Please therefore do not leave me unaware of its arrival. I shall also send you some Sonnets. Please accept, Sir, the assurance.
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