Léon HENNIQUE. Autograph manuscript signed, Minnie Brandon, - Lot 440

Léon HENNIQUE. Autograph manuscript signed, Minnie Brandon, [1898]; [2]-208pages oblong in-4 (23 or 20.5x26.5cm) written on the recto, in leaves in a folder, in a blue cloth slipcase, title-piece on the spine. Complete manuscript of this novel, dedicated to Alphonse Daudet and published in 1899 by Charpentier. In 1878, Hennique had met a young English alcoholic, with whom he lived for almost two years; she was to be the model for Minnie Brandon. Let's quote the excellent notice by our colleague Pierre Saunier: "Minnie Brandon is the sober story of an alcoholic English girl, raped at the age of 12, who loves her lover, Edmund (Edmond à l'anglaise), as much as the whisky she abuses between the lines. In the end, the whisky wins out over Edmund, who is forced to abandon his mistress. The fact remains that with Minnie Brandon, a novel quite apart from his other works, Hennique radically renews his style: impressionistic tableaux, short chapters, choppy, elliptical sentences, the use and abuse of English expressions and absurdly funny puns - finally, a hint of naturalism to spice up the cocktail (the trip to the London in-laws) and another finger in the humorous, melancholy waft of Jules Laforgue and his Complainte sur certains ennuis... [...] A book to be drunk in one go". The manuscript, carefully written in brown ink on lined oblong paper, was used for the printing of the book; it shows a few erasures and corrections; a few notes, to translate English expressions, are inscribed on blocks glued to the bottom of the pages. The title page is followed by the dedication page: "Pour l'illustre maître, mon ami cher Alphonse Daudet L.H." (For the illustrious master, my dear friend Alphonse Daudet L.H.).