Une Enquete Aux Pays Du Levant (An Inquiry into the Lands of the Levant)

Paris: Plon-Nourrit & Co., 1923. Limited to 1,100 copies of which this is number 1,087. Octavo (7" x 5"). Quarter leather stamped in gilt, over tan cloth. iv, 242. Faintest edge-wear to cloth, red ribbon marker slightly frayed at the end. A fine copy.

Une Enquete Aux Pays Du Levant (roughly translated to: An Inquiry into the Lands of the Levant) is the travels and reflections on the Middle East (the Levant region, including parts of modern-day Lebanon, Syria, and surrounding areas), focusing on France's cultural and political role, local Christian communities, and ancient traditions. This copy is written in French and is part of a edition limited to 1,100 copies. It was published the same year as its author's death.

Maurice Barrès (1862-1923), a French novelist and politician, famously said: “Tout livre a pour
collaborateur son lecteur,” which can be roughly translated as: “Every book has as its co-author the reader.” According to this view, when one reads a work, he or she, in collaboration with the author whose words he or she is reading, is creating, as a co-author, a new work that previously did not exist, with a new meaning never before contemplated.