Le "livre" de Mallarmé

Collection "NRF".

Preface by Henri MONDOR.

"The two hundred or so leaves of the "Book" reproduced here in their entirety have had a profound effect on Mallarméan studies. They are one of the most extraordinary writings there is. According to Mallarmé, all literature and all reality must lead to this total Book. Through a metaphysical ballet, the "Book" combines, in a strange but fundamental way, a search for structures and a search for poetry. Jacques Scherer's analysis, which precedes Mallarmé's text, explains the organization of the almost religious sessions in which the poet planned to comment on the work in front of those attending a ceremony, the astonishing financial bases of the enterprise and, as far as possible, the birth of images and myths within a coherent whole. This "Book" has shocked many minds, because it is a limit of the mind. Like God, like life, it is absurd, unthinkable, it exists without really existing, like the beings of literature. In fact, at the same time as a collection of words, it proclaims itself to be the foundation and summary of the world.

ORIGINAL EDITION limited to 66 numbered copies on Lafuma-Navarre pure thread vellum. This is one of those numbered copies.