Les Justes: Piece en Cinq Actes. [The Just Assassins: A Play in Five Acts].

CAMUS, Albert.

$3,200.00

Item Number: 137191

Paris: Gallimard, 1950.

First edition, early printing of Camus’ classic examination of the moral issues associated with murder and terrorism. Octavo, original wrappers. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page, “A Jean de Bosschère [crossing through “Les”] an nom des que vous no sommes sens tes cordialement Albert Camus.” The recipient, Jean de Bosschère lived for most of the 20th century between London and France, and illustrated his own works as well as the works of Oscar Wilde, Charles Baudelaire, and the classical works of Aristophanes, Ovid, Strato and Apuleius. He published his own works of poetry, and in 1952 was awarded the Prix de la Méditerranée and in November the Mandat des Poètes. In near fine condition.

Camus separated his work into three cycles. Each cycle consisted of a novel, an essay, and a play. The first was the cycle of the absurd consisting of L'Étranger, Le Mythe de Sysiphe, and Caligula. The second was the cycle of the revolt which included La Peste (The Plague), L'Homme révolté (The Rebel), and Les Justes (The Just Assassins). The third, the cycle of the love, consisted of Nemesis. Each cycle was an examination of a theme with the use of a pagan myth and including biblical motifs. Camus began his work on the second cycle while he was in Algeria, in the last months of 1942, just as the Germans were reaching North Africa. Based on the true story of a group of Russian Socialist-Revolutionaries who assassinated the Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, The Just Assassins explores the moral issues associated with murder and terrorism.