« Furthermore, the small volume of secret verses (printed in 205 copies) is almost entirely located in a small, unfurnished room above my bedroom , in a cupboard or wardrobe near the fireplace on the right! It will take a certain skill to discover it, but you have been warned.
Sold
Charles-Augustin SAINTE-BEUVE (1804.1869)
« This is my will. »
The last wishes of Sainte-Beuve.
Autograph will signed (three times) in favour of Juste Olivier-Ruchet.
Autograph letter signed to the same person.
One page in quarto on stamped paper and one page in duodecimo. Paris. April 20 and August 4, 1844
Wax-sealed envelope with handwritten inscription: " This is my will ."
Important documents from the French writer delivering his last wishes and naming his Vaudois friend Juste Olivier-Ruchet as executor of his will and legatee of his literary works.
Sainte-Beuve indicates to him the meticulous hiding place where he can find the Book of Love , a collection bearing witness to his affair with Adèle Hugo.
___________________________________________________
– This is my handwritten will.
– I hereby cancel all those 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, all that I possess in income, money and other property.
library to my friend Professor Juste Olivier-Ruchet of Lausanne and I name him my executor. In a document dated December 19, 1843, which is in his possession, I outline some instructions that I wish to see carried out.
– I expressly wish that at my death there be no ceremony whatsoever, no funeral speech, nothing solemn, no summons even; that I be taken to the Church, then to the cemetery early in the morning, and accompanied only by friends who happen to be informed and who wish to give me this last testimony.
Done in Paris, by my own hand, this Saturday, April 20, 1844, at the Institute. ca Ste Beuve.
Should I have the misfortune to outlive my excellent mother, I would wish that the ownership of my works belong (and for as long as I have the right to dispose of them) to my friend Olivier-Ruchet of Lausanne, and that he become their publisher : I therefore bequeath them to him, in case such a bequest is possible. If the law forbids it, I wish my works to enter the public domain . Done in Paris this 20th of April 1844, in my own hand, Ste Beuve.
"If I have the misfortune to outlive my excellent mother, I hereby make and appoint my friend Juste Olivier-Ruchet of Lausanne my universal legatee ; I bequeath to him all that belongs to me in houses, annuities or other properties, including my literary works . In my own hand, Ste Beuve. Paris, this 20th of April 1844."
___________________________________________________
"Dear Olivier, Although I don't want to die , just a quick note for my peace of mind. I've written a will (on stamped paper) which is in one of the drawers of my secretary and which, by naming you executor, refers to what I recommended to you."
Furthermore, the small volume of secret verses (printed in 205 copies) is almost entirely located in a small, unfurnished room above my bedroom , in a cupboard or wardrobe near the fireplace on the right! It will take a certain skill to discover it, but you have been warned.
___________________________________________________
Juste Olivier , a Swiss literary historian, writer, and journalist, was for a time one of Sainte-Beuve's close friends. About ten years after naming his Vaudois friend as his sole heir, following what Léon Séché calls "religious and political disagreements," Juste Olivier was cut out of the writer's will.
In organizing his estate, Sainte-Beuve was particularly concerned with the fate of his * Livre d'amour* (Book of Love ), the anonymous collection of poems devoted to his affair with Adèle Hugo, the great man's wife, noting the print run of 205 copies. The lovers' affair dated back to 1830, when Victor Hugo and Sainte-Beuve lived on the same street, Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs. At that time, the two were bound by a fraternal friendship. The few copies of * Livre d'amour* distributed to close friends and Sainte-Beuve's indiscretions caused a scandal: the two writers were destined to hate each other for the rest of their lives.
Sainte-Beuve revised his will twice, on January 12, 1866 and September 28, 1869. In the latter he wrote: " I want my burial to be purely civil. "
___________________________________________________
Sainte-Beuve. General Correspondence . Volume V, pages 541-542 and pages 630-631.
Unpublished correspondence of Sainte-Beuve with Mr. & Mrs. Juste Olivier. Léon Séché.
Sainte-Beuve Exhibition . National Library. Paris. 1955.
Formerly in the Pierre Bezançon collection.