Manuscrit autographe signé des nouvelles Les Mains et La Nature humaine, édition originale

AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT. The manuscript features two short stories written by Romain Gary, Les Mains and then La Nature humaine.

Les Mains:

The manuscript presents two states of this short story. The first state of the text runs from page 3 to page 39, and the second state extends from page 51 to page 103. The second state is signed and dated "New-York, June 1953". These two states correspond to the incipit of the short story originally entitled Ainsi s'achève une journée de soleil, published in 1954 in the magazine La Table Ronde and republished in 1962 under the title Le Luth in the collection Gloire à nos illustres pionniers and also in Les Oiseaux vont mourir au Pérou. The two manuscripts, which have been extensively crossed out and corrected, contain a number of variants.

The text in the first state begins as follows: "The diplomatic corps of I. had few members more distinguished than the Comte de C., minister plenipotentiary [...] The minister was a tall man of rare elegance, barely in his fifties". This passage becomes in the second state: "In 192... the diplomatic corps of Istanbul counted among its members few men as distinguished, as respected and perhaps even envied, as the Count of N. [...] Tall, slim, of that sober and governing elegance which went to perfection with long and delicate hands, with fingers which always seem to suggest a whole life of intimacy with objects of art, the pages of a beautiful book or the keyboard of a piano.".

The final text is markedly different, but the same descriptive elements can be found: "Tall, slim, with that elegance that goes so well with long, delicate hands, with fingers that always seem to suggest a lifetime of intimacy with objets d'art, the pages of a rare edition or the keyboard of a piano, the ambassador count de N... had spent his entire career in important but cold posts, far from this Mediterranean that he pursued with a tenacious and somewhat mystical passion, as if there were some intimate and deep bond between him and the Latin sea. His colleagues in the Istanbul diplomatic corps reproached him for a certain stiffness [...]". The character entitled " Mahmoud " in the manuscript becomes " Ahmed " in the published version.

Gary writes: "Mahmoud was in his little inner garden, playing trictrac with a neighbor, when the Count entered the store". A passage that becomes, in the published text: "Ahmed was in the small inner courtyard playing trictrac with a neighbor, when the Count made his entrance into the store.".

Human Nature:

The other text, entitled La Nature humaine, occupies pages 41 to 49 and is inserted between the first and second states of the short story Les Mains. A circus giant is examined by a doctor, in the presence of the circus manager: a rather unsympathetic dwarf. This manuscript seems to present an early version of the story, which was also published in the collection Les Oiseaux vont mourir au Pérou under the title Les Joies de la nature. The published text is very different, but there are similar elements: a doctor goes to a circus to examine a giant, under the taunting eye of a lilliputian.

A rare autograph manuscript by Romain Gary in a beautiful Elbel-libro slipcase.