Louise MICHEL and her hopes for a new world. 1901.

Louise MICHEL (1830.1905)

Autographed letter signed to comrade Alexandre Roy.  

Four pages in-12°. Co-written with her friend Charlotte Vauvelle.

London, August 19 [1901]

« It was while thinking about our own idea for the new world that I passionately devoured the book

A co-written letter, about the historical novel Quo vadis by the Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz, inspiring in Louise Michel all the hopes of a new world.

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Charlotte Vauvelle begins this letter by stating that she greatly enjoyed Quo Vadis , which she did not find at all " religious ," before giving news of the former Communard and anarchist activist Constant Martin, who has been struck by paralysis. Louise Michel continues the letter:

“Now Quo Vadis. We had read it a few months ago, and I had brought it home to devour it. It had captivated me, even though the English translation is said to be the worst. But I hadn't just been thinking about the sentences; I was reading the ideas , experiencing those prison encounters between fanatics of an idea, those sudden conversions— I've seen them, I still see them. So it was with our own vision for the new world in mind that I had passionately devoured the book. I was therefore happy to reread it from cover to cover. With a fresh perspective, it didn't make the same impression on me, but it made a new one. There are marvelous details about ancient Rome and the true as they follow history. But the boundless grandeur of early Christianity, when it wasn't walled in by dogma like a fortress, was no longer quite so lofty, and yet, through it all, it's magnificent. ”