KESSEL (Joseph).

Belle de jour. Paris, Éditions de la NRF, 1929. Small in-4, pale pink box, mosaic black box medallion in the center of the first plate enclosing a lock of hair under a transparent window, encircled by the title of the book in half-black mosaic letters, half-pink in reserve, smooth mute spine, lining edge to edge of the same box open on a large mandorla of raspberry mosaic stingray, bright pink suede endpapers, head painted in pale pink, untrimmed, cover and spine, pale pink half-box folder decorated with a black lace pattern, matching slipcase (Morina Mongin, XII-2019) First edition. One of the 110 first copies reprinted in 4-copy format on laid paper, this one of the 100 nominative copies reserved for the Bibliophiles de la NRF, printed in this case for Paul Largy. Belle de jour, which narrates the double life of a married woman seeking carnal pleasure in prostitution, attracted the accusations of shocked readers when it first appeared in serial form in the columns of Gringoire. Kessel addresses them in his preface: "Some accused me of unnecessary license, even pornography. There is nothing to answer them. [...] To expose the drama of the soul and the flesh, without speaking as freely of one as of the other, seems to me impossible" (p. 9). Sulphurous binding by Morina Mongin, lined and mosaicked with pink shagreen, containing like a reliquary a lock of hair of Catherine Deneuve, the Belle de jour of Luis Buñuel's film adaptation, released in 1967.