Ernest FEYDEAU (1821-1873). Autograph manuscript signed, Le - Lot 76

Ernest FEYDEAU (1821-1873). Autograph manuscript signed, Le Secret du bonheur, study, 1863-1864; title and 316 oblong leaves in-4 (22.5 x 28 cm), mounted on tabs in a strong oblong volume bound in half black morocco. Complete working manuscript of this novel, published by Michel Lévy in 1864 in 2 volumes. The novel is set in Algeria. Colonel de Bugny has found happiness in cultivating a vast estate in the land of the Beni-Haoua, living in peace and harmony among the Arabs. The arrival of an engineer captain to build a village disrupted everything, and provoked the natives' hatred of the occupier, with the colonel vainly pleading the Arabs' cause. Bugny buys the confiscated land to ensure that the Beni-Haoua own their territory... Feydeau has grafted a love story between Colonel de Bugny's daughter and the Captain's son onto this plot. In the edition, the novel is dedicated to Louis Bouilhet. In his dedication, Feydeau explains that this book "presented difficulties of several kinds. Deep-rooted prejudices to combat, the need to bring two actions to a head, the obligation to paint, by discussing them, morals and characters purposely debased by so many people interested in dishonoring their victims, there was nothing lacking in the stumbling blocks that can discourage a writer. [...] My intention was not so much to recount a legend of love as to describe a certain little-known region, and at the same time to express a certain way of thinking, feeling and acting among the people brought together by chance in this attractive land. I also wanted to respect the truth of the characters, without allowing myself more than a little latitude in the romanticism of events. So there is not one character in this study that is not a sincere portrait, hardly one of its many scenes that did not take place before my eyes. These pages, quietly unfolded [...] for the edification of men of good faith, are less, as a whole, a work of invention, than a simple chapter of history"... The manuscript is signed and dated at the end "June 1863 - May 1864". It is divided into two parts (corresponding to the 2 volumes of the edition), paginated 1-155 (13 chapters), and 156-316 (14 chapters). It is written on the recto side of oblong leaves, mainly in brown ink, and occasionally in blue ink; it features numerous erasures and corrections, marginal additions, passages crossed out, and corrections by checkmarks. It was used for printing, and bears typographers' names in pencil. The dedication to Louis Bouilhet does not appear in the manuscript. The title page bears this autograph dedication: "Ce manuscrit a été offert par l'auteur à Mademoiselle Henriette Sansom, comme un faible témoignage de sa respectueuse sympathie. Paris, November 19, 1867. E. Feydeau". [Henriette Sansom (1847-1938), the natural daughter of a wealthy British man, was brought up in Paris; in 1868 she married the Italian Count Efisio Quigini Puliga, and after her husband's death became a woman of letters, under the pseudonym Bradamente and then Brada].