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Lot Essay
Research tends to consider that the announced print run of 250 copies should be revised downwards: it is likely that the exact figure is rather 150 copies, which is the total declared in legal deposit on June 14, 1875. These copies would have were numbered in two groups, from 1 to 100 and from 190 to 240 to give the illusion of a publication of immediate success - the "missing" numbers had to be printed as a second step, in case of high demand. The publication is announced by posters which take up the profile of the raven which adorns the cover.
At the time of the publication of Le Corbeau, the critics were unanimous in their praise: a column published in Le Siècle on June 13, 1875 affirms that Manet "saw more than the letter, he felt and returned the spirit of the poem ... after having seen his terrible etchings, as after having tasted the prose of Mr. Stéphane Mallarmé, we no longer separate them from the American book, and Le Corbeau becomes unforgettable ". In Le Gaulois of June 9, 1875, Georges Mayrant adds by writing that in his translation, "Mallarmé found a way to speak American in French, that is to say to be in French, more Poe than Poe himself. It is a tour de force which deserves to be reckoned with its author ". He also salutes Manet's illustrations, which "are truly of a feeling of terror and cold interpreted by an artist. We are not used to attempts at this proud daring, not to wish by ending all possible success to the new edition of Le Corbeau ".
Despite these rave reviews, the relatively modest price and the promotion, the edition was a commercial failure, in France and across the Channel. Edmund Gosse's memoirs are quite eloquent on this subject, conjuring up the image of "Mallarmé, [this little, brown, gentle person] ... trotting about in Bloomsbury [and] carrying the vast folio of his Manet- Poe through the lenghts and breadth of London, disappointed but not discouraged ". This disappointment is commensurate with Mallarmé's admiration for Poe, who saw him as "his great master" (Letter to Henri Cazalis, January 7, 1864) and his investment as well as that of Manet in an editorial company that wanted to be of great quality.
At the time of the publication of Le Corbeau, the critics were unanimous in their praise: a column published in Le Siècle on June 13, 1875 affirms that Manet "saw more than the letter, he felt and returned the spirit of the poem ... after having seen his terrible etchings, as after having tasted the prose of Mr. Stéphane Mallarmé, we no longer separate them from the American book, and Le Corbeau becomes unforgettable ". In Le Gaulois of June 9, 1875, Georges Mayrant adds by writing that in his translation, "Mallarmé found a way to speak American in French, that is to say to be in French, more Poe than Poe himself. It is a tour de force which deserves to be reckoned with its author ". He also salutes Manet's illustrations, which "are truly of a feeling of terror and cold interpreted by an artist. We are not used to attempts at this proud daring, not to wish by ending all possible success to the new edition of Le Corbeau ".
Despite these rave reviews, the relatively modest price and the promotion, the edition was a commercial failure, in France and across the Channel. Edmund Gosse's memoirs are quite eloquent on this subject, conjuring up the image of "Mallarmé, [this little, brown, gentle person] ... trotting about in Bloomsbury [and] carrying the vast folio of his Manet- Poe through the lenghts and breadth of London, disappointed but not discouraged ". This disappointment is commensurate with Mallarmé's admiration for Poe, who saw him as "his great master" (Letter to Henri Cazalis, January 7, 1864) and his investment as well as that of Manet in an editorial company that wanted to be of great quality.