Charles-Augustin SAINTE-BEUVE - His signed autograph will.

Charles-Augustin SAINTE-BEUVE (1804.1869)

« This is my will. »

The last wishes of Sainte-Beuve.

Autograph will signed (three times) in favor of Juste Olivier-Ruchet.

Autograph letter signed to the same.

One page in-4° on stamped paper and one page in-12°. Paris. April 20 and August 4, 1844

Wax sealed envelope with handwritten note: “ This is my will . »

Important documents of the French writer delivering his last wishes and naming his Vaudois friend Juste Olivier-Ruchet executor and legatee of his literary works.

Sainte-Beuve shows him the careful hiding place where he can find the Book of Love , a collection that bears witness to his affair with Adèle Hugo.

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– This is my holographic will.

– I hereby cancel all those that I may have made from a previous date, relating to my last wishes.

– I give and bequeath to my dear mother, if she survives me, everything I own in income and money and other properties.

– I give my friend Mr. Professor Juste Olivier-Ruchet of Lausanne my library and I name him my Executor. In a paper dated December 19, 1843 and which is in his hands, I indicate to him some provisions that I wish to see carried out.

– I expressly desire that there be no ceremony at my death, no funeral speech, nor anything solemn, even any convocation; let me be taken to the Church, then to the cemetery early in the morning, and only accompanied by friends who happen to be informed and who want to give me this last testimony.

            Done in Paris, by my hand, this Saturday April 20, 1844 at the Institute. ca Ste Beuve.

If I have the misfortune of surviving my excellent mother, I would like the property of my works to belong (and as long as I have the right to dispose of them) to my friend Olivier-Ruchet of Lausanne and that he made the publisher : I therefore bequeath them to him, in case this type of bequest can take place. If the law prohibits it, I want my works to enter the public domain . Done in Paris this April 20, 1844 by my hand Ste Beuve.

If I have the misfortune of surviving my excellent mother, I make and establish my friend Juste Olivier-Ruchet of Lausanne as my universal legatee , I bequeath to him everything that belongs to me in houses, income or other properties, including my works literary . From my hand Ste Beuve. Paris this April 20, 1844.”

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“Dear Olivier, Although I don't want to die , a little word of business for my peace of mind. I wrote a will (on stamp paper) which is in one of the drawers of my secretary and which, by naming you executor, refers to what I recommended to you.

In addition, the small volume of secret verses (printed in 205 copies) is almost entirely in a unfurnished room , above my bedroom , in a cupboard or cupboard near the fireplace on the right! It will take some art to discover it but you have been warned. »

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Swiss literary historian, writer and journalist, Juste Olivier (1807-1876) was for a time one of Sainte-Beuve's intimates. About ten years after having appointed his Vaudois friend as universal legatee, following what Léon Séché calls “religious and political disagreements”, Juste Olivier was deleted from the writer's will.

In the organization of his succession, Sainte-Beuve was particularly concerned with the fate of his Livre d'amour , the anonymous poetic collection devoted to his affair with Adèle Hugo, the wife of the great man, of which he indicated the circulation – 205 copies. The lovers' affair dates back to 1830, when Victor Hugo and Sainte-Beuve lived on the same rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs. The two were then linked by a brotherly friendship. The rare copies of the Book of Love distributed to relatives and the indiscretions of Sainte-Beuve caused a scandal: the two writers were to hate each other throughout their lives.

Sainte-Beuve repeated his will twice, on January 12, 1866 and September 28, 169. In the latter he wrote: “ I want my burial to be purely civil. »

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. Sainte-Beuve. General correspondence . Volume V, pages 541-542 and pages 630.631.

. Unpublished correspondence from Sainte-Beuve with Mr. & Mrs. Juste Olivier. Léon Séché.

. Sainte-Beuve exhibition . National Library. Paris. 1955.

. Former Pierre Bezançon collection.