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several old letters are on a piece of paper on a white surfacethe front cover of a book with a picture of a man on itan open book with a handwritten page on it sitting on top of a table
ROUILLAC

72 - Antoine de Lévis-Mirepoix (1884–1981), novelist, historian a…
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Estimate €80 - €120
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Description
Antoine de Lévis-Mirepoix (1884–1981), novelist, historian and essayist, member of the Académie Française Collection comprising correspondence and 1 publication 4 autograph letters, 1927–1939, addressed to René Benjamin, including: Autograph letter, Neuilly, 11 March 1939; concerning the lecture on Marie-Antoinette My dear friend, it is not enough for me simply to have seen you. I must write to you. Rejoice in having experienced the finest sensation an artist can feel: achieving what he set out to do! And I, for my part, have experienced the greatest joy a listener can feel: being unable to wish for anything better than what one hears! This lecture remains a masterpiece, just as a book would. Once the words have faded away, it remains as if suspended in memory with all its living harmony! It certainly enchanted the entire audience. But for anyone who has had even a little hand in the craft, it is a marvellous joy to discover its underlying mechanisms—so solid, so pure, its structure, at once so natural and so skilful, with wit and pathos never at odds, and, like a breath of fresh air, soaring to heights that never faltered! For example, do not tell me that you are not a historian, at least in my humble opinion. What, after all, is a historian if not someone who applies to the past the same powers of observation, the same sensitivity, the same creative imagination, to understand it, as he would apply to the present? Others may be great scholars, but not historians! It seems to me that you serve history too well for it not to call upon you a little! The portrait of Louis XVI moved me deeply. That of Mirabeau—it transported me! What a poignant, dazzling tribute to the memory of a heroic queen! In short, you have done for her what Mirabeau had dreamt of doing. You have preserved her greatness!… Montségur Paris, Albim Michel, 1924 Paperback, 19 x 12 cm Signed autograph copy FIND THE FULL AND DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THIS LOT IN OUR ONLINE AUCTION CATALOGUE
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About the sale René Benjamin, the 20th-century Balzac scholar
Auction location
Auction time 10/06/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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