GARY (Romain). 2 manuscripts, one signed "Romain Gary", of h - Lot 77

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GARY (Romain). 2 manuscripts, one signed "Romain Gary", of h - Lot 77
GARY (Romain). 2 manuscripts, one signed "Romain Gary", of his text Plaidoyer pour une marquise. [1968]. 8 pp. 1/2 large folio and 9 pp. 1/2 large folio, erasures and corrections, all leaves with margi_x0002_naux binder holes, one leaf with missing paper, without affecting the text. 2 SUCCESSIVE VERSIONS WITH SIGNIFICANT VARIATIONS REVEALING HIS METHOD OF WRITING/REWRITING, i.e.: a complete, titled and signed version (8 1/2 pp. paginated), and a nearly complete early version combining leaves from two different drafts (7 1/2 pp. paginated on Jackie Kennedy and 2 pp. on Aristotle Onassis). ON JACKY KENNEDY'S REMARKS WITH ARISTOTE ONASSIS in October 1968. More than a real plea for the widow of the American president, Romain Gary offers an ironic response to the critical voices that were raised against this marriage and spoke of disrespect, treason or vulgarity. He also paints an accurate portrait of the former first lady of the United States, "so little made for History and its imaginary Museums", far from the "epinal images" manufactured "by public opinion with the collaboration of the mass media". He is both admiring and acidic about John F. Kennedy, and declares a favourable opinion of Aristotle Onassis: "I consider the word 'parvenu' to be dishonourable for the person who uses it. No one has the right to claim that superiority. « ... WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU ARE A KINDLY MARQUISE WHO LOVES THE SUN, THE SEA, TRAVELS, IS THIRSTY FOR CAREFREE LIVING, AND ABOVE ALL, ABOVE ALL! ...HAS HAD ENOUGH OF GREEK TRAGEDY? YOU MARRY A GREEK WITHOUT TRAGEDY. Take the grandeur, the history, the myth, the blood, the seriousness, and look for the exact opposite of all that: you are likely to find Aristotle Onassis. Don't forget that marquises don't have much taste for happiness: pleasure is enough for them. You have lived in the shadow of a powerful man: you choose a man who is also powerful, but who will live in your shadow. You have never been a pampered woman: your illustrious husband had other things to do. So this time you marry a man who will throw all his immense fortune at your feet, for whom you are the triumphant, unhoped-for, crazy crowning of a life of "parvenu". He will make our Marquise a true queen... You're doing as they used to say "an end". Of course, I would have preferred Jacqueline Kennedy to marry, as we used to say in May, a "German Jew" [allusion to May 1968 and Daniel Cohn-Bendit]. But, failing that, I am content to see her marry a "parvenu" and a "levantine". I, too, love a good story... »
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