Limited Editions Club Camille

Description: For sale is the Very Rare, in the marketplace, Limited Editions Club 1937 printing of Camille by Alexandre Dumas fils (the son), the illegitimate son of Dumas pere. Although his father had written colorful historical plays, Dumas fils specialized in drama set in the present. The unhappy witness of the ruin brought on his father by illicit love affairs, Dumas fils devoted his plays to sermons on the sanctity of the family and of marriage. Our novel was published in 1848 but the author found his true vocation as a dramatist when he adapted the story into a play, first performed in 1852. Giuseppe Verdi based his opera La traviata, first performed in 1853, on the play. Readers might also recognize the character as portrayed in a memorable film by Greta Garbo (Camille,1936). The alternate name of the fictional character Marguerite Gautier, Camille made her way in life as a courtesan, and her byname referred to the camellias she carried as a signal of her availability (I say no more. I do not judge.). After falling in love with a young man, Camille gives up her former way of life but selfishly returns to it (even knowing that she is mentally ill and that he is her last chance for happiness) rather than ruin his life by her association with him. Her protracted death scene has been much parodied. Suffice it to say, one can easily see the attractiveness of the plot to Verdi and its star appeal for Ms. Garbo. Illustrating our lovely edition, Marie Laurencin fashioned 12 water color paintings, in her noted style: Her paintings are usually portraits of ladies. They are done in fresh but pale pinks and blues. She makes her ladies droopy and languorous, she always gives them eyes literally like shoe buttons and paints their faces without noses. (We nonetheless know where the noses are.) Oliver Simon at the Curwen Press in London printed our edition, and used Bembo type. It has a sharp black color, designed in a highly sophisticated fashion. For paper, we have what the English call cylinder wove paper, a paper fashioned of a rag content upon a cylindrical machine. It has a dull tone and a pleasantly coarse feeling to the fingers. Thus, it looks old and expensive. The sheets and the illustrations were assembled and bound at the Curwen Press. They were sewn and cased in boards covered with famous Winter-bottom buckram. Made of linen, the buckram has a white/linen color, to give it a true boudoir effect of white and gold. Upon the back of the binding, the title is stamped in gold; upon the front of the binding, a camellia is stamped in gold. The slipcase is a stone grey. The offer includes the most essential four page Limited Editions Club Monthly Letter. This is number 832 of 1500 copies, and is signed by Marie Laurencin. The offer includes the four page Limited Editions Club Monthly Letter. It is difficult to find copies of this title for sale at any price, and most unusual to find one in this condition and with the essential Monthly Letter. For some reason, really nice copies have not survived. The offer should have a wide appeal: to serious LEC collectors, to lovers of French literature and plays, and unusually and especially to anyone who can compare their enjoyment of a great novel to a great opera and to a great movie. Thank you for reading this presentation, and good luck in your searches. Feel free to write me with any questions.

Price: 445 USD

Location: Wexford, Pennsylvania

End Time: 2025-01-10T05:46:11.000Z

Shipping Cost: 7.25 USD