Henry de Montherlant (1895–1972).

Working manuscript for *La Rose de sable*. The novel *La Rose de sable*, a critique of French colonisation in the Maghreb, written between August 1930 and February 1932, was published in part as a non-commercial edition under the pseudonym François Lazerge and under the title *Mission providentielle* in 1938; other fragments of the novel were published in 1954 and 1956, prior to a partial edition in 1968 and the complete edition in 1982 in the Pléiade series. This draft, written in purple ink, heavily crossed out and corrected, with marginal additions, paginated 10 to 46, corresponds to the current Chapter II of the first part of the novel (Romans, II, Pléiade, pp. 32–45), beginning with the introduction of the hero’s father: ‘Mr Auligny spent thirty years in the civil service, living in fear of an unexpected event’…, up to the end of the chapter, with Lieutenant Auligny’s arrival in Tangier on 24 March 1932. Some pages were written on the reverse of recycled draft sheets. The edge of a frayed sheet has been repaired with gummed paper; the last sheet has been slightly trimmed, with no loss of text.