André MALRAUX – Manuscript, first draft, for his novel, L'Espoir.

André Malraux (1901.1976)

Autograph manuscript.

An oblong quarto page with cut-out edges.

Slnd [1937]

Important working manuscript, first draft, constituting the incipits of chapters V and VI (with variants) of Malraux's novel, L'Espoir.

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The Ministry of War was empty – the government had left Madrid for Valencia. The white marble staircases, covered in garnet carpets, were lit only by candles placed on the steps, held upright by dripping stearin. When these candles were extinguished in the middle of their small pools, only darkness would remain on the monumental staircase.

Miaja, who was looking for Garcia, lived in a room in the building above the official offices; but he was at the people's house in the Plaza Mayor. Just as the commander was going downstairs to go there, he saw a thin, stooped figure, alone and dark, ascending the immense staircase. The light of a dying candle around her blond hair: Guernico had come to seek help for the ambulance service he was trying to organize… the two of them left together for the Plaza Mayor.

On the walls and lowered storefronts, shadows advanced leaning forward, parallel like haulers; above, large reddish smokes from the suburbs rolled heavily.

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Hope was published by Gallimard in December 1937. The novel – one of Malraux's major works – recounts the events of the Spanish Civil War, from the Francoist military coup to the Battle of Guadalajara.