BOK, med inskription av Maupassant.

Guy de Maupassant:

Les Soeurs Rondoli.

Paris, Paul Ollendorff, 1884. 18 x 12 cm. [4] + 312 pp.

Contemporary green half leather, spine with 4 raised bands, gilt flowers in 4 compartments, marbled boards and endpapers, sprinkled edges. Wrappers not preserved. Spine faded and lightly worn, slight rubbing of front corners, minimal paper loss to half title, front hinge partly cracked. Internally a bit toned in margins, first and last few leaves slightly spotted.

First edition, first impression on ordinary paper.

Inscribed by Maupassant to Baron de Vaux (to whom the story “Un Sage” is also dedicated in print on p. 183).

Inscription in ink to half-title: “au Baron de Vaux / son ami / Guy de Maupassant”.

The person behind the nom de plume Baron de Vaux is not known. He was a sports columnist, author of books on duels, and is stated to have served as the model for the main character of Bel-Ami. Maupassant’s novel Bel-Ami was published in 1885, and describes the social climbing of the ex-soldier and journalist Georges Duroy, who signs his articles “Du Roy”. In 1883 Baron de Vaux published the book Les Tireurs au pistolet, for which Maupassant wrote the preface.

Robert Baldick states in The Duel. A History of Duelling (1970), that “The painter Henri Gervex had quarrelled with the Baron de Vaux, who, being the offended party and knowing Gervex to be a good swordsman, had announced his attention of calling him out for a pistol duel. Hearing of this and not wanting his friend to be killed or wounded, Maupassant hurried round to Gastinne-Renette’s shooting gallery, where he spent the morning firing at a number of target cards, scoring bull’s-eye after bull’seye. He then took the cards home and scattered them casually on a table in his smoking room. The Baron de Vaux, who came to lunch with him that day, saw them and expressed his admiration at the writer’s fantastic skills as a marksman. ‘But those aren’t my cards’, said Maupassant. ‘They are the work of Henri Gervex. He shoots at Gastinne’s every morning.’ The baron changed colour, and the next day Gervex learned to his relief that the threatened duel had been called off.”

Vicaire V:612.

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