742 - [DUMAS, Alexandre] “Jonquille” [The Story of Violette]. No place [c. 1870?] In-4°: 111 ff., black ink on tinted laid paper, written on the recto, except for a few lines on some verso pages; a few erasures and corrections in the same hand; cover in fair condition. (edges somewhat frayed; the last three folios with some text loss; rare small foxing; slight crease marks). In folios, in a modern folder. An important manuscript, unpublished under this title, constituting an early version of the “Roman de Violette,” a famous curiosity long disputed as the work of Alexandre Dumas. The manuscript was preserved folded inside an envelope bearing the handwritten inscription “Jonquille by Alex. Dumas Père” and, in pencil, “signature / Verso folio 34.” On the reverse of f. 34 appears the note “most likely fortune/ Alex. Dumas,” in the same hand as the manuscript. This handwriting differs significantly from Dumas’s autograph, and this manuscript therefore does not appear to be in his hand. The attribution of the “Roman de Violette” has a complex bibliographic history. The text bears close similarities to the novel published clandestinely in Brussels by Jean Gay around 1883, under the false address “Lisbon, Antonio da Boa-Vista” and the fictitious date of 1870, and later republished by Auguste Brancart. Dumas’s name appears explicitly as the author’s only in a 1912 catalog noted by Louis Perceau. Pierre Dufay, under the pseudonym Sylvestre Bonnard, subsequently attributed it to the Marquise de Manoury d’Ectot, an attribution later adopted notably by Pascal Pia. In 1992, Claude Schopp, in his preface to the Mercure de France reissue of *Le Roman de Violette*, attributed the work to Dumas based on an analysis of the text. In 2020, he cites *Le roman de Jonquille* as the “first version” of *Roman de Violette* (“Afterword,” in: *Dumas amoureux*, ed. by J. Anselmini and Cl. Schopp, Presses universitaires de Caen, 2020). Daniel Zimmermann, who also supports this attribution, in *Alexandre Dumas le grand* (Julliard, 1993), adds (p. 592) that Dumas is said to have “dictated” the novel—”his only erotic work”— around July 1870, in Bagnères-de-Luchon, which would be consistent with the fact that this manuscript is not in the author’s own hand. The characters’ names have been changed—Jonquille becoming Violette—but the published editions of *The Novel of Violette* follow this manuscript almost word for word, apart from a few additions, notably the preface and Violette’s death at the end. “Jonquille” consists of ten actual chapters, despite erroneous numbering that suggests eleven, compared to nine in “Violette”; Chapter 5 of “Jonquille” was not included in the printed text. Enclosed: [Id.] - “Jonquille.” No place, no date. School notebook, in-8°. Unbound, with a black waxed-paper cover (minor creases and signs of wear). A complete and carefully cleaned-up copy, in another hand, attributed to Noël Parfait or a collaborator of Dumas. Formerly owned by [Dr. Benoît Dujardin]. - [Paul Van der Perre (1895–1970), Brussels bookseller and bibliographer]. After the death of Dr. Benoît Dujardin, Van der Perre acquired a large part of his collection of autographs, including this manuscript of *Jonquille*.