Octave MIRBEAU. Lot n° 67

L'Abbé Jules. Paris, Paul Ollendorff, 1888. In-12: red half-maroquin with corners, spine ribbed, untrimmed, cover preserved (Canape). First edition. One of 5 copies on Japan paper (no. 4). One of Octave Mirbeau's great novels, written after reading Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, which had a profound effect on him: a priest in revolt, torn between the needs of his flesh and his religious commitment, lives in the suspicious and stifling atmosphere of a village in the Perche region. Signed autograph on the title page: to Felicien Champsaur his friend Octave Mirbeau Ten years his junior, the Provençal Félicien Champsaur, like Mirbeau, was a journalist in the major daily newspapers of the time. He is notably the author of a laudatory article on Le Calvaire. It is suspected that Mirbeau was his ghostwriter for the writing of his play La Gomme (1889). Perfect copy.