23 - BARBEY D'AUREVILLY, Jules. *Amaïdée*. Prose poem.

BARBEY D'AUREVILLY, Jules. *Amaïdée*. Prose poem. Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1890. In-8 (18.5 x 12 cm), Bradel binding, long-grain half-maroquin. Covers and spine preserved. VII-74 pp. Spine sun-faded, slight rubbing. Interior yellowed. First edition of this prose poem, which Barbey d'Aurevilly wrote as a young man in 1835 and which was not published until the year of his death. The manuscript appeared at the dispersal of Sainte-Beuve’s library, where it passed into the hands of a certain Mr. Paradis, then disappeared for many years. The story takes place in Normandy. The poet Somegod (inspired by the writer Maurice de Guérin) has withdrawn from the world to live as a hermit in an isolated house on the edge of a cliff, weighed down by the suffering and painful memories of his past. One day, he receives a visit from an old acquaintance he hasn’t seen in two years: the philosopher Altaï (who represents Barbey d’Aurevilly himself). Altaï is not alone; he is accompanied by Amaïdée, a woman worn down by fatigue with a fierce gaze, who turns out to be a former courtesan. A fine, untrimmed copy, bound in a delicate long-grain half-maroquin binding.