Francis JAMMES (1868-1938). Autograph manuscript signed, Mon - Lot 447

Francis JAMMES (1868-1938). Autograph manuscript signed, Monsieur le curé d'Ozeron, [1917]; 228 folio leaves (30.5 x 20 cm) mounted on tabs and bound in a bottle-green jansenist morocco volume, int. lace (Asper, Geneva). Complete working manuscript of Jammes' longest novel. Monsieur le curé d'Ozeron was published by Mercure de France in 1918. "The novel, done in the usual way of a succession of rustic tableaux, shows well the rooting of grace in love, pain and everyday life. It is supported by a well-linked plot that symbolizes the parable of the Talents and the Pearl of the Kingdom: a priest gains access to the grace of the priesthood through human love and pain, and then devotes himself and his spiritual son to charity through the exercise of simple virtues and the practice of thrift" (H. Hargous). The manuscript, in black ink, is paginated from 1 to 228; it is preceded by a one-page Prelude in which Jammes recounts a dream he had "when I was about to put the finishing touches to this book, on August 3, 1917". The manuscript shows numerous erasures and corrections, as well as crossed-out and deleted passages. Bound at the end: - 7 autogr. or dactyl. ff. with autogr. corrections and additions, of variants for passages in chap. IV, V and X; - a L.A.S., Hasparren June 6, 1932 (2pp. in-4), concerning the transfer of the manuscript, the proceeds of which are to be donated to the Abbey of Saint-Wandrille, where Jammes' son Michel is a novice preparing to become a Benedictine priest (his photo is enclosed); - autograph notes signed by Jammes (7 pages), unpublished comments on Béarn (with pasted-in map), his origins, his childhood, his successive homes, the genesis of his novels Le Rosaire au soleil and Monsieur le curé d'Ozeron, the characters and places in the novels, etc. Former Alain de Suzannet collection (bookplate), then Daniel Sickles (March 19, 1986, no. 84).