Georges BERNANOS (1888-1948).

Lot 2
Go to lot
Estimation :
600 - 900 EUR
Georges BERNANOS (1888-1948).
MANUSCRIT autograph signed, [ Christmas at the House of France1928]; 8 pages in-4. Beautiful and long article on childhood, the glories of France and the House of France, where Bernanos affirms his royalism. The manuscript, on lined paper, in black and then blue ink, is presented as an open letter or reply to Jacques Reynaud, director of La Revue Fédéraliste, in which this text appears with variants (108th book, "Guirlande à la Maison de France," 1928); the article was reprinted in L'Almanach de l'Action Française, 1929, under the title "Nos princes ou l'honneur français," before being published as a booklet: Noël à la Maison de France (Éditions des Cahiers libres, 1930). It was collected in 1956 in Le Crépuscule des vieux (p. 105-112). "Never, never, never will we tire of offending fools! Never, never, never will we completely lose interest in those round faces, glowing with security, self-contentment, candid egotism, quiet and comfortable stupidity, who preach to us - unbeknownst to them - the necessity of the heroic virtues, the perfect propriety, the expediency - what am I saying!... the exceptional urgency of all the follies of honor. Dear round heads! Dear disapproving looks, and so touching, so pathetic because their gravity is only feigned, and we - my God! - under so much icy dignity, an ingenuous terror of life, all the dreams of childhood dead without baptism - childhood, I tell you! sublime childhood"... Evoking St Bayard, St Corneille or St Perrault, and Joan of Arc, he glorifies "French honour"... Then he wishes a "Merry Christmas to the House of France! [...] Long live the King! Long live the Queen! Long live Monseigneur le Dauphin!" And he evokes his meeting in Louvain with the "young French prince", whom he apostrophizes to conclude: "With you, when you want, we will make history. And what a story it is! the one that three or four centuries later becomes a tale, a beautiful adventure novel, with colourful images that make girls dream and little boys shout with joy. Expert: Thierry Bodin.
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue