256 - MONTHERLANT (Henry de), 1895–1972.

MONTHERLANT (Henry de), 1895–1972. Autograph preparatory manuscript titled “On ‘Port-Royal’,” signed “Henry de Montherlant” [c. 1943]. 15 ff. in-4, extensively corrected and revised, on recycled paper (the reverse side containing excerpts from typewritten texts and articles or letters addressed to him between January and May 1943). A complete draft, likely of a lecture recounting his gradual discovery of Jansenism through family tradition (“I entered Jansenism through its caricature and the Late Empire”) and his readings (notably Sainte-Beuve’s work). In it, he outlines the genesis of his project devoted to Jansenism and Port-Royal, a subject that would occupy him for many years. He discusses his own relationship to Jansenism (“‘I also found loners, strict adherents, dissidents, and a minority. This was my family.””) and reflects on the slow maturation of the work, begun in April 1940, linked to the specifically dramaturgical difficulties of his undertaking: transforming the history of Port-Royal into a play, reconciling historical accuracy with the demands of dramatic adaptation, and above all, making an essentially spiritual subject theatrical. A first-rate account of the genesis of *Port-Royal*, written well before the play’s final publication in 1954. Also included, from the same author: - Autograph letter signed “Montherlant,” Algiers, March 20, 1933. 2 pp. in-f°, with envelope, to Robert de Saint-Jean at the *Revue Hebdomadaire*, author of a review devoted to *Mors et Vita*, published by Grasset in late 1932; he thanks him for “one of the best [columns] ever written about this book,” despite some reservations, and acknowledges that he “got it pretty well.” In particular, he returns to the character of Lancelot (“But how could you not have seen that what broke my ‘curve’ was by no means the war, but rather that ‘great departure’ of 1925 […] ?”—referring to Montherlant’s departure for North Africa and the existential rupture that subsequently fueled his work). The letter then takes on an almost programmatic tone. Accused of “occasionally denigrating [what he writes],” he defends himself: “Why should what is permitted to everyone else be forbidden to me alone? […] One must say everything as it is. And when this ‘as it is’ is unfavorable to you, it seems to me that one deserves credit for saying so.”" In a postscript, he adds an interesting literary correction concerning Keats, thereby restoring a line in his French translation, “quoted several times in *La Rose de Sable*.” Includes its original cultural property export certificate from the Ministry of Culture. - Autograph letter “Montherlant” to an actor, “Sunday, 25 Quai Voltaire,” undated [circa 1946?], 2 pp., in-8: The actor made a great impression on him: “[…] You have the face of sensitivity. […] I hear you’ve just played Titus. You’re made to play Romans. And there is, across the centuries, a curious resemblance between your face and those painted by Italian artists of the 15th and 14th centuries, which means you should also play Renaissance characters. Have you read my play *Malatesta*, and would you be interested in the role of Malatesta?”” - L.A.S. “Montherlant,” undated “Sunday” [1945], to Pierre Béarn, 1 p. in-8, with envelope. Montherlant asks Pierre Béarn to publish or circulate “the echo” he has enclosed with his letter, which “would serve a beautiful book (which, incidentally, has been sent to you) and which his publisher is currently sabotaging.” He hopes to shake his hand soon, as he has returned to “the mess that is the City of Light” . With an amusing postscript: “I know a woman who is crazy about you based on your portrait by A. Bilis. I promised her, if she behaved herself, this photo of you on your bare knees (which you gave me in 1924)."" - L.A.S. “Montherlant,” Paris, October 4, 1939, 1 p. in-4, letterhead with his new address, “25 quai Voltaire,” with envelope, to the poet Claude Chardon, written just a few weeks after France entered the war. Montherlant thanks her for sending her poems and offers a particularly warm assessment: “You bring great vitality and expression to feelings that seem difficult to convey in verse these days. I cannot say that I always agree with them entirely. I especially like *Lampadaires* and *Paysage nocturne*… and I appreciate the loyalty you show to works that, to me, now seem somewhat of the past. I wholeheartedly accept the dedication you have offered me: it is a small bridge spanning the chasm between literature and me.” -