Les Joyeuses. From 1845 to 1854.
Copied in Paris from the author’s original, 1874.
Small in-4 (270 x 210 mm), 132 pp, blond half calf, smooth spine decorated, speckled edges; small split at inner hinge, corners a little rubbed (Period binding).
Autograph manuscript by the chansonnier Eugène Baillet (1829-1906), containing over sixty unpublished chansons populaires by the hunchbacked Parisian chansonnier Désiré Roger (1825-1864).
Eugène Baillet, who kept the original manuscript in his library, composed this volume to perpetuate the memory of Désiré Roger. He enriched the volume with a photograph of a portrait-charge of the hunchbacked chansonnier drawn by Hippolyte Mailly, and a press article he had written on the occasion of the publication of other songs:
"[...] [Désiré Roger] was small, frail, with angular features, a wry, even scowling smile never leaving his lips [...], his gibbosity was enormous for this small body.
Poor Roger, with his lack of physical strength, struggled to make a living, working in the stores of booksellers and metalworkers [...]. Despite the successive bad days of his existence, he never complained, and often said of his poverty: "I laugh like a hunchback. [...]
If he wrote a few serious songs like the ones we are publishing, he also wrote around sixty, of which I have the manuscript and which could form a remarkable volume under this title: "La fine gaudriole". What will become of these sparkling songs of verve and finesse?"
A fine tribute by Eugène Baillet to the forgotten hunchbacked chansonnier, a previously unpublished source on the spirit and song of Parisian folklore.
2 200€
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