January 20, 2012

Sourires Pincés by Jules Renard, the beginning of Poil de Carotte

Sourires Pincés (tight-lipped smiles), published in 1890 by Lemerre, is the first book that allows Jules Renard (1864-1910) to enter the inner circle of writers. The book is a collection of articles first published in the Mercure de France magazine founded in 1889 by Alfred Vallette for which Jules Renard is a major shareholder. The acid prose  of the author is critically acclaimed and open the doors for Jules Renard of  literary circles of his time. He makes friend with Lucien Descaves, Georges Courteline, Alphonse Allais, Edmond Rostand, Tristan Bernard, or Anatole France to whom the copy that we offer for sale is dedicated.

 Sourires Pincés is also ("With all due respect" fourth text of the first part of the collection) the book in which appears for the first time the figure of the young Poil de Carotte. The text concluded with a key phrase used four years later in the novel appeared in 1894: "In his mouth, two fingers and in his nose, only one: Everyone can not be an orphan."

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :
  • RENARD  (Jules). Sourires Pincés. Paris, A. Lemerre, 1890, in-12, binding by Maylander. First edition publisehd at the author's expense. Copy with a dedication from Jules Renard to the author Anatole France.  Ex-libris : Dr Lucien Graux.