L’Académie française au fil des lettres, de 1635 à nos jours

The members of the French Academy are serious persons. We can realize this is we peruse through this collection of letters that go from Richelieu, the founder of the Académie française, up to Jean Cocteau. There is not even a drawing, nor any fantasy (aside from Flaubert’s blue paper, a sketch by Robert de Flers and a very amusing drawing by Jean Guitton, with the legend: «the Academy discussing over the word «con» (cunt or idiot, depending on the context) 16 February 1967»). But there is paper blackened with lines, with paragraphs, with totally different graphics. We would like to detect a reflection of the author’s personality and we are caught in the visual game, by looking through the work: how did Buffon, Hugo or Claudel write? Perrault was the neatest –a real typewriter – and Barbey d’Aurevilly was a well-known scrap writer …

• L’Académie française au fil des lettres, de 1635 à nos jours by Philippe de Flers and Thierry Bodin, Gallimard, 2010, 360 p., 29 €.

• This important collection that belonged to Philippe de Flers, is shown at the musée des Lettres et Manuscrits (222 boulevard Saint-Germain, 76007, until 14 November 2010).