Giorgio DE CHIRICO, Hebdomeros (1929), signed, in the rare dustwrapper.
de Chirico, Giorgio.Hebdomeros. Paris: Editions du Carrefour. Collection Bifur, 1929. First edition. 19 cm; 252 p, [1] leaf. One of 2500 numbered copies on Alfa Mousse Navarre. A very good copy in original wrappers, with a near fine example of the very uncommon dustwrapper, which bears a vignette by the artist. In a custom clamshell case.
Signed by de Chirico. The only novel, a roman-a-clef, by this profoundly influential artist, and a landmark of surrealist prose. The perigrinations of de Chirico's extraordinary hero through a hypnotic landscape, may be seen as the key to the artist's “Pittura Metafisica.” In fact, as James Thrall Soby observed, many of the poetic titles of his paintings may be traced to phrases from this novel. But it is de Chirico's prose rather than his painting that has drawn such admirers as Paul Bowles and John Ashbery, both of whom tried their hands at translating the work. As Ashbery wrote, “Everything about Hebdomeros is mysterious....[de Chirico] invented for the occasion a new style and a new form of novel that he was not to use again....His language, like his painting, is invisible: a transparent but dense medium containing objects that are more dense than reality.” A scarce book, seldom encountered signed, and rarely in jacket.
Product tabs
Recommend this product

Giorgio DE CHIRICO, Hebdomeros (1929), signed, in the rare dustwrapper.
Related products
Rachel CARSON. Silent Spring (1962). The foundation of the environmental movement.
View details
Philip K. Dick, Solar Lottery, signed
View details
James Tissot, Gouache study of St. Mark
View details
Ralph ELLISON. Invisible Man (1952), signed
View details
W. Heath Robinson. Bill the Minder. His magnum opus. Signed, limited edition, in vellum
View details
Swinburne's Dolores: A forgery by Thomas Wise
View details
I. J. SINGER. The Sinner / Yoshe Kalb (1933). First edition
View details
Strickland Lowry, John Sebastian Miller, and David Teniers: trompe l'œil, transmission, and transformation
View details
Lord DUNSANY. The Gods of Pegana (1916). First American edition
View details
Vladimir NABOKOV. Lolita (1955). First hardcover edition
View details
Jonathan Swift, Contests and dissentions (Boston 1728): The first Irish book published in America
Jonathan Swift, Contests and dissentions (Boston 1728): The first Irish book published in America
View details
Daniel Defoe. The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. An unrecorded early American edition (ca. 1835)
View details
Edith Wharton. Ethan Frome. First UK edition. Inscribed to her butler, Alfred White (1911)
View details
Original art: T. E. Lawrence meets Irving Berlin
View details
Alfred Jarry. Les Jours et les Nuits (1897), first edition, signed
View details
Herman MELVILLE. The Confidence Man. First edition, Association Copy
View details
Harlan ELLISON, Sex Gang (1959). First edition
View details