{"product_id":"vermorel-souvenirs-contes-1942","title":"Souvenirs, contes et nouvelles","description":"\u003cp\u003eMemories, Tales and Short Stories. 1942 First Edition Pp. 151, (1). Villefranche-en-Beaujolais Éditions du Cuvier, Jean Guillermet Publisher's printed light green wrappers, with small vignette; lightly tone, small tear at the upper spine. A very good copy. The volume gathers the literary writings of Jean Vermorel, a Lyonnais literary critic, archivist, and chronicler of Beaujolais and Lyon. The preface is by Justin Godart, with whom Vermorel had long been linked through political, intellectual and work collaboration (he was his secretary when attached to the Bibliotheque du Palais des Arts). Vermorel went on becoming the archivist of the city of Lyon from 1912 to 1934, a member of the Academie des Pierres Plantees under the pseudonym Joannes Papelard, and a founding member and vice-president of the Societe des Amis de Guignol. As a first edition issued in the year of his death (1942), this collection stands as a regional literary memorial of Lyonnais civic culture and Beaujolais print life. The frontispiece is a halftone photographic portrait of the author, Jean Vermorel, standing outdoors in the Beaujolais countryside, hat on and dark coat, a fitting image for a writer whose work is so thoroughly rooted in the landscapes and memories of the Lyon region. In the preface Justin Godart (1871-1956) recalls the social activism that animated Vermorel and himself in popular education and the city's cultural institutions. For context, Godart was a major figure of Lyonnais radical-socialist politics, lawyer and politician, Deputy for Lyon from 1906, Senator for the Rhone from 1926, Minister for Health in 1932, one of the \"Vichy 80\" who on 10 July 1940 voted against granting Petain full powers, later active in the Resistance and interim mayor of Lyon at its liberation in September 1944.  A richly varied miscellany, the volume moves through four distinct sections. Souvenirs Lyonnaises offers memoir and social observation, including reflections on Dr. Terme's tenure as mayor of Lyon and an eyewitness account of the city during the years 1840–1847. Études Lyonnaises follows with historical and literary essays, like Chateaubriand's connection to Lyon, the return of Napoleon, and the illness and death of a Lyonnais mayor in 1818. The center of the book belongs to Contes et Nouvelles, a gathering of seven short fiction pieces, among them La Baignoire, Le Brocanteur, Soeur Gentiane, and L'Outil. A slender poetry section, Le Livre de ma Vie, then offers verse meditations grouped under titles such as Doute, Les Asiles, and Retour à la Vie. The volume closes quietly with Au Bout du Chemin, a collection of pensées and impressions. Final bow for Vermorel (here in the less familiar role of storyteller) published in the year of his death, as if to gather a lifetime's observations into one last volume. The scientist softens into a raconteur; civic passion and the Beaujolais spirit find their quieter register.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Fenice Antiquaria","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48097366409451,"sku":"132-1942--40-40-46121.7173611111","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0766\/2000\/5611\/files\/00132_IMG_7735copy.jpg?v=1776193014","url":"https:\/\/fenicebooks.com\/products\/vermorel-souvenirs-contes-1942","provider":"La Fenice Antiquaria","version":"1.0","type":"link"}