Octave MIRBEAU.

The Garden of Torment. No place or date [ca. 1898-1899]. Autograph manuscript in-4 of 110 leaves written on the front, numbered 1-9, 1-25, 1-5, 26-96, mounted on laid sheets in-folio: green jansenist morocco, broad ribbed spine, edges and headpieces gilt threaded, gilt roulette on the inner edge, case (Lortic). Complete autograph manuscript of Octave Mirbeau's famous novel. In tight handwriting, without margins, it presents only rare corrections and erasures and was bound for the author in Lortic's green morocco. It was used for printing. Its text corresponds to the printed edition, with the exception of a few variants - such as the two final pages added by the author on proofs or the name of the character Eugène Mortain. The only known manuscript of this ultimate masterpiece of decadent literature. Matured during the years of journalism, the novel was preceded by several pre-publications which Mirbeau used for the final manuscript in the manner of a patchwork. This is particularly true of the first part, entitled "En mission", which was published in 1893 in L'Écho de Paris and in 1895 in Le Gaulois, each time with important additions. This part has a separate numbering in the final manuscript, which leads us to believe that Mirbeau had used it before. Le Jardin des supplices was finally published in 1899, on the eve of the trial of Alfred Dreyfus in Rennes. A text of combat, it denounces capitalist society, hypocrisy and the shortcomings of the society of its time. From the collections of Alain Suzannet, with ex-libris, and Colonel Daniel Sickles (II, 1989, n° 442).