First Edition of Max Ernst's Une Semaine de Bonté, Inscribed to Rosamond Bernier

Ernst, Max. Une Semaine de Bonté, ou, Les Sept Elements Capitaux. Roman. Paris: Aux Editions Jeanne Bucher, 1934.

4to.; five volumes; illustrated with 182 line blocks collages; held in publisher's card stock slipcase with printed labels, as issued.

First edition, one of 800 numbered copies (of a total edition of 816 copies). Five volumes, in publisher’s slipcase. Numbered 547, save the final volume, which is numbered 487.

The five volumes are as follows: Premier Cahier: Dimanche / Elément: La Boue. Exemple: Le Lion de Belfort. Deuxième Cahier: Lundi / Elément: L’Eau. Exemple: L’Eau. Troisième Cahier: Mardi / Elément: Le Feu. Exemple: La Cour du Dragon. Quatrième Cahier: Mercredi / Elément: Le Sang. Exemple: Oedipe. Dernier Cahier: Jeudi, Vendredi, Samedi / Eléments: Le Noir; La Vue; Inconnu. Exemples: Le Rire du Coq, L’Ile de Paques; L’Interieur de la Vue; La Cle des Chants. All volumes near fine with some handling wear and sunning to the spines and a couple with slight bleeding from the colored wrappers to the front free endpaper. The slipcase has been restored at an earlier date and is slightly taller than the volumes. Overall an excellent set. $7500 One of Ernst’s most important and extraordinary works, a narrative without text, in which he collaged the images from nineteenth century engravings. This was the third of his collaged novels, after La Femme 100 Têtes (1929) and Rêve d’une Petite Fille Qui Voulut Entrer au Carmel (1930). Breton said of them, “the pages which he has enchanted rather than merely ‘decorated’ are so many eyelids that have started to flutter.”