Osenat House organized a sale of writings of many great writers. Charles Baudelaire's suicide letter, dating back to 1845, is one of them. And she was successful, since it was sold 234 000 euros!
A letter of youth of Charles Baudelaire announcing his intention to commit suicide sold this Sunday, November 4 to 234 000 euros, three times the estimated price, at auctions organized by the Osenat house in Fontainebleau (Seine-et-Marne ). This missive dates from 1845, and 34 other letters from the author of Fleurs du Mal have been put on sale.
Osenat House also offered letters and writings from many other writers, such as Verlaine, Rimbaud, Zola, Proust, Sartre, Monet, Nietzsche, Flaubert or Pissarro, and many others. The first edition of the novel The Human Beast , by Émile Zola, entirely annotated by the author, was also part of the sale and was estimated between 30,000 and 40,000 euros, says Le Parisien .
Part of a French private collection
The highlight of the sale, this letter from Baudelaire, dated June 1845, addressed to his mistress Jeanne Duval, was estimated between 60,000 and 80,000 euros. It will now be part of a private French collection, said the auction house.
"When Miss Jeanne Lemer gives you this letter, I will be dead [...] I kill myself because I can not live anymore, that the fatigue of falling asleep and the fatigue of waking me up are unbearable," writes the poet. He will stab himself without serious consequences. He is 24 years old and will live another 22 years.