SARTRE Jean-Paul (1905-1980)

Lot 163
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1200 - 1500 EUR
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Result : 1 820EUR
SARTRE Jean-Paul (1905-1980)
Signed autograph letter addressed to the writer René CATINAUD. S.l., September 12, 1938, 2 pages in-4 square in ink on squared paper. "I know that The Wall is inferior to The Nausea and I think I know why". Criticism and self-criticism after the publication of The Nausea. The lycée Pasteur de Neuilly is a beehive of philosophers. Sartre, but also Robert Merle, Daniel-Rops and René Catinaud teach there. The publication of La Nausée, in April 1938, had a considerable impact. A masterstroke that propelled Sartre to the forefront of philosophers. His friend René Catinaud had opened the ball, a year earlier, at Gallimard, with L'Épée du roi. A success that stimulated his writing. A second novel is published, Portonéro. Sartre, who has just spent time in Morocco, gives his feelings. An opinion exposed without complacency. "I won't hide from you that I like it less than 'The King's Sword'." You know how much I liked your first book, the character of Fernande and all the struggles of Morat". Why did you choose a character "so far from my concerns that I thought he was so far from yours"? Sartre, bewildered, underlines an error of appreciation. "Do you remember how you used to say to me, 'We're lucky we didn't make it,' the last time I saw you? And it's true. But why do you paint someone who is and disgusts himself with being one? And how this genius who is drying up for the first time is so far from your own vitality and fruitfulness". He continues: "You will tell me that there is no law against dealing with matters of pure fiction, and I agree with you. But it seems to me that your very strength made you less able than someone else to imagine a guy like Cégore. What a difference from Morat, who lived on all levels at once: he only lives on one level. The analysis takes him back to his own literary destiny. "I've always heard it said that an author's second book is not as good as his first. I know that The Wall [to be published a few months later, in F
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