CAMUS Albert. L'état de siège. Gallimard, 1948.

Price: US$2285.13 + shipping

Description: - Gallimard, Paris 1948, 12x19cm, broché. - Edition originale, un des exemplaires du service de presse. Envoi autographe signé de Albert Camus à Henri Gouhier. Papier jauni comme généralement, manque en marge de la page de garde, dos insolé, exemplaire complet de son prière d'insérer. [ENGLISH TRANSLATION FOLLOWS] First edition, an advance (service de presse) copy. Autograph inscription signed by Albert Camus to Henri Gouhier. Paper yellowed as usual, spine sunned, retaining its advertising slip.

Seller: Librairie Le Feu Follet, Paris, France

Camus, Albert. L'Etat de Siege. Gallimard, 1948.

Price: US$2800.00 + shipping

Condition: Near Fine

Description: Paris: Gallimard, 1948. Cream paper wraps with a period glassine cover, pages uncut. Some pencil marks and a inch long line of residue, likely left by previous dealers, on the flyleaf, minor edge wear, else pristine. 233 pages. An advance copy (hors commerce) inscribed by Camus to his friend and fellow novelist Marcel Arland on the title page. Near fine. "The State of Siege," or perhaps better translated as "State of Emergency," is a political allegory about resistance to the plague of authoritarian rule. Panned by French critics, who were expecting a stage adaptation of his novel The Plague, it was nonetheless cherished by Camus himself, who considered it one of his major works. Arland was a prize winning (the Prix Goncourt in 1929) novelist better know for his work as an editor of literary reviews, founding Des and the Dadaist periodical Aventure in the early 1920's before joining La Nouvelle Revue Française (NRF), where he stayed until 1977. An exceptional signed Camus association copy in uncommonly fine condition.

Seller: Bad Animal, Santa Cruz, CA, U.S.A.

Camus, Albert. L'État de Sià ge. [The State of Siege].. Gallimard, Paris, 1948.

Price: US$3000.00 + shipping

Description: First edition, early printing of Camus' fourth play, a political allegory about resistance to the plague of authoritarian rule. Octavo, original wrappers. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page, "A Jean de Bosschà re assiege sure anso mars insoumais [L'Etat de Siege] are Esperes a plus cordials Albert Camus." The recipient, Jean de Bosschà re lived for most of the 20th century between London and France, and illustrated his own works as well as the works of Oscar Wilde, Charles Baudelaire, and the classical works of Aristophanes, Ovid, Strato and Apuleius. He published his own works of poetry, and in 1952 was awarded the Prix de la Mà diterranà e and in November the Mandat des Poà tes. In near fine condition. Written in 1948, The State of Siegeâ€"the original sense is closer to state of emergencyâ€"is a play in three acts presenting the arrival of plague, personified by a young opportunist, in sleepy Cadiz and the subsequent creation of a totalitarian regime through the manipulation of fear. In a piece written in 1948, in reply to criticisms from Gabriel Marcel, Camus defended his decision to set the play in Spain, and not in Eastern Europe, citing the ongoing oppression in Spain, France's collusion in it, and the Catholic Church's abandonment of Spanish Christians. The piece was first performed in October 1948, and was initially received poorly by critics and public, who had eagerly awaited the work, but expected a dramatization of Camus's novel The Plague. While the two share a common background, the treatments are entirely different in tone. The work has remained almost constantly in print in French, and since 1958 in an English translation by Stuart Gilbertâ€"in Caligula and Three Other Playsâ€"with a foreword by Camus.

Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.