Early Literary Magazine with Proust's First Texts

Description

The Banquet, Paris, Librairie Rouquette then Briquet, March, May, June, July, November 1892 and February, March 1893. 7 fascicles, large octavo (28 x 18 cm), faded covers, few pale halos. Missing issue no. 2, April 1892, already reported as untraceable by Fernand Gregh in 1958. Founded in 1892 by PROUST and fellow Condorcet high school students including Jacques Bizet, Fernand Gregh (director), Robert Dreyfus, Louis de La Salle, Daniel Halévy, and Horace Finaly, meeting at Rouquette bookstore in Passage Choiseul. Financed by monthly contributions of ten francs per author, printed in 400 copies for first issue, 200 for subsequent ones. Ceased after eight issues, likely for financial reasons. Contains Proust's first published texts: studies, reviews, and essays in issues 1-3 and 5-7. Issue 7 features 'Violante or worldliness, tale,' Proust's first real short story, later included in Pleasures and Days. Includes character sketches foreshadowing À la recherche du temps perdu.