CIORAN Emil M. (1911-1995). Lot n° 34

autograph manuscript for De l'inconvénient d'être né; 40 pages in-4 in a spiral notebook, red cardboard cover (Librairie-papeterie Joseph Gibert, 27 x 21 cm). Editing, with variants, erasures and corrections, of two chapters of the book De l'inconvénient d'être né (Gallimard, 1973), probably for publication in a review. Hantise de la naissance, with a variant title crossed out: Sur la malchance de naître. This text, paginated 1 to 18, corresponds to section I of De l'inconvénient d'être né, where the section titles have disappeared. Cioran wrote it on the front of the sheets at the beginning of the notebook, in black or blue ballpoint pen, with some corrections in red ballpoint pen, and a cleanup on the back of page 2, opposite the reworked passage. A new version of the third thought has been pasted on top of the original version. Sometimes, the thoughts are separated by stars in red pen. Cioran made many corrections on his manuscript, and some thoughts will be reworked again in the edition. Some aphorisms have been crossed out on the manuscript, like this one after the fourth thought: "Perpetual awe. I have never been at ease with being. I am only seduced by what precedes me, the countless moments when I was not. The unborn is my refuge. Others, not crossed out on the manuscript, were deleted for the edition of the book, like this one (p. 6): "The Art of the Fugue and the Mâdhyamika, these supreme exercises, these two extremes of expression and reasoning, these two only great victories over the world. This other one, crossed out in red pen (p. 14), will become, slightly modified, the conclusion of the book: "What have you, but what have you? - I have nothing, I have nothing, I have only made a leap out of my fate, and now I do not know what to run to..." On the uselessness of revolutions. This text, paginated 1 to 21, corresponds to section VIII of The Inconvenience of Being Born. Cioran wrote it in blue pen on the front of the sheets, with a sheet 12a opposite page 12, and two additions opposite pages 13 and 21, and corrections, sometimes in red pen. The text has again been extensively reworked for the edition. Thus the second thought of the manuscript has disappeared from the book: "It is in euphoria that the Frenchman builds a social system, without taking any account of practical data. The word 'revolution' has the effect of an aphrodisiac on him. While he lacks metaphysical imagination, he is remarkably inventive when it comes to rethinking society; there, nothing stops him: he goes wild, he raves while reasoning, he loses all common sense, he goes to the end of his ramblings. He loses all common sense and goes to the end of his ramblings. If he even considers another type of order or disorder, he feels innovative, he is in his element. The idea of equality puts him in a trance, and it is around it that his obsessions have revolved for two centuries. As there is no nobler insanity, he can devote all the reserves of his hopes and his rhetoric to it without looking...