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

MONTHERLANT, Henry de (1895–1972). Autograph manuscript, Postscript, [1968]; 3½ pages, in-4. A moving text about the loss of his left eye in 1968. This Note: This text was included, untitled and with variations, in *La Marée du Soir. Carnets 1968–1971* (Gallimard 1972, pp. 27–29) at the end of “Nocturne,” The manuscript, written in black pen in small, sloppy handwriting on the back of typewritten pages of a critical text about Malatesta and Jean-Louis Barrault, contains numerous cross-outs and corrections. “By a matter of a few centimeters, the accident that befell me would have robbed me of sight in both eyes rather than just one. So, just as much as I could have done so physically, it would have been suicide, for I could not bear to be blind. I can therefore say that—for the third time—I narrowly escaped death by a matter of a few centimeters”… After quoting and commenting on the words of the condottiere Colleone and a letter from his own mother, Montherlant concludes: “I can make Colleone’s words my own, without changing a single word, for they are at the same time a response to my mother’s deepest aspiration. The discreet means…… I have brought it to light.”