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

André MALRAUX (1901.1976)

Autograph manuscript.

An oblong octavo page cut around the edges.

Slnd [1937]

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

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The War Department was empty – the govt. had left Madrid for Valencia. The white marble stairs covered with garnet carpet were only lit by candles placed on the steps, held upright by the flowing stearin. When these candles were extinguished in the middle of their little pool, there would be nothing left but darkness on the monumental stairs.

Miaja, who was looking for Garcia, lived in a room in the building, above the official premises; but it was at the people's house in the Plaza Mayor. At the moment when the commander was going down to go there, he saw a thin stooped figure coming up, alone and black in the middle of the immense staircase. The light of a dying candle around his blond hair: Guernico was coming to get 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, the shadows moved leaning forward, parallel like haulers; above, great red smoke coming from the suburbs rolled heavily.

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L'Espoir 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 Franco military putsch to the Battle of Guadalajara.