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A Manuscript Fragment of Thaïs: Its Stylistic and Other Revelations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
It seems to be the fate of the preliminary drafts of Anatole France's novel to survive in the hands of unidentified persons. Something over half of what was apparently the original manuscript was sold in New York in the 1920's to a person who has preferred to remain anonymous. In 1948 a seventy-two-page fragment of manuscript was sold in Paris to an unidentified purchaser. The latter has now permitted this manuscript
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1956
References
1 Abbreviations:
A: the Thaïs MS. thought to be the original.
Al: a fragment of Thaïs MS. pub. in 1924. See n. 3 below.
A2: the Thaïs fragment which is the subject of the present article. See n. 4 below.
B: the Thaïs MS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale.
RDM: La Revue des Deux Mondes.
s: Sheet of photographed MS.
The only description of the MS. sold in the 1920's is that of E. P. Dargan in his Anatole France, 1844–1896 (New York, 1937), pp. 615–618. Dargan considered it to be the original but noted that it was not continuous. It consisted of 10 liasses or bundles of pages and notes. Many of the developments France ultimately rejected, others he broke up and dispersed, says Dargan. We shall call this MS. A.
By comparison the Caillavet MS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale (Nouvelles Acquisitions Françaises, No. 21609) is an exhibition piece. Dargan calls it MS. B “which the printer may have followed.” His uncertainty about its use for printing is no doubt due to the number of “brouillon” pages which could hardly have been submitted to a printer. In some cases the rewritten page is included along with the “brouillon.” There are 7 pages of an episode not published in any edition of Thaïs. Here and there throughout MS. B there are what appear to be printer's marks indicating the number of lines set or to be set. This MS. was a gift from France to Mme de Caillavet who had taken a great interest in the composition of Thaïs (Jacques Suffel, Anatole France, 1946, p. 172). There are even pages in her hand. It is reasonable to think that in MS. B we have the printer's MS. with absent pages replaced either because the final drafts were lost or for the sake of recording the stages of composition, which may also have had personal associations.
There are altogether 4 pagination systems in MS. B. The oldest is that of the “brouillons” which appear at intervals after p. 90. The main system, the one in which we find the printer's marks, is evidently a revision, for its numbering is lower. A third system is represented by pages written in the hand of Mme de Caillavet. It is likely that she recopied revised passages when France was under the pressure of other tasks. Finally there is a fourth system which begins on sheet 208 (we shall use the term sheet when referring to the pagination of the photographs of the MS. instead of to France's own chaotic numbering). It is evidently the continuation of a revised pagination and goes through to the end of the MS. Beginning on sheet 237 there are subnumbers from 7 to 12, no doubt the numbering of a separate draft of this section. This is a characteristic device of France.
I should appreciate any information concerning the location of the original MS. described by Dargan.
2 I am grateful to M. Lucien Psichari, the grandson and literary heir of Anatole France, and to the latter's publishers, the firm of Calmann-Lévy, for their kind permission to use the unpublished MS. material contained in this article.
3 In all probability we have at least a third of the missing Pt. i in a 35-page facsimile published by Edouard Champion (Tltaïs [fragment] avec une préface inédite, Paris, 1924). It takes the action from Paphnuce's meeting with Timocles until just after the monk is stoned by children as he arrives in Alexandria. The pagination from 45 to 75 corresponds to pp. 30–50 of MS. B. The higher pagination alone suggests that the facsimile is an earlier draft than MS. B. Nowhere are there printer's marks visible. We shall call this facsimile MS. Al.
4 The new fragment, which we shall call MS. A2, has the pagination of the “brouillons” in MS. B. It begins with Pt. n. Its first page is numbered 133 and in MS. B there are three “brouillons” numbered 130–132 which come at the end of Pt. I. Like these “brouillons” MS. A2 is part of an earlier draft. That MS. A2 was never used for printing is indicated by the absence of any printer's markings. It also has several examples of subnumbering of passages specially worked over.
5 1 use brackets to indicate erasures in the process of composition and Underlining to help the reader follow the changes in the MSS. and printed texts; for the avoidance of “qui” and “que” see Antoine Albalat, Le Travail du style (Paris, 1903), pp. 27, 68, and Gustave Lanson L'Art de la prose (Paris, 1911), p. 155.
6 A2, s. 23; B, s. 125; the pagination of the MSS. is that of the photographed sheets as explained in n. 1 above; princeps will refer to the first edition of Thaïs in book form (Calmann-Lévy, 1890).
7 A2, s. 22; B, s. 124; RDM, LIX (1889), 323; princeps, 101.
8 A2, ss. 35–38, 42–9; B, ss. 136, 149, 152.
9 This collation has included the princeps and the 1921 revision.
10 Michel Corday, Anatole France d'après ses confidences et ses sottvenirs (Paris 1927), p. 155; Jean de Mitty, “Un Déjeuner avec M. Anatole France,” Chronique des Lettres, 10 July, 1903.