André Malraux // Le Miroir des Limbes

Adventurer, resistance fighter, and iconic minister under de Gaulle, André Malraux (1901–1976) was a remarkable writer who transformed his extraordinary experiences in Spain, Cambodia, India, China, and beyond into vivid and compelling narratives. His prose, as flamboyant—and at times as visionary—as the man himself, remains a testament to his multifaceted life. 

Malraux’s ashes now rest in the Panthéon in Paris, alongside those of Voltaire and Rousseau—a well-deserved honor. It is a fitting tribute to a man who delivered some of history’s most brilliant and moving eulogies (see our copy of Oraisons Funèbres (Funeral Orations)). The Panthéon’s inscription, "Aux grands hommes la patrie reconnaissante” ("To the great men, from a grateful nation”), is a phrase Malraux himself might have used in his many powerful speeches. 

His Antimémoires (Anti-Memoirs, 1967) forms the first volume of Le Miroir des Limbes (The Mirror of Limbo). The second part of this cycle, la Corde et les Souris, consists of Les Chênes qu’on abat (1971), La Tête d’Obsidienne (1974), Lazare (1974), and Hôtes de Passage (1975). Initially published separately, these four works were later reorganized by Malraux himself and republished together in 1976 as La Corde et les Souris (The Rope and the Mice) —first by Folio (April 1976) and then in October in Gallimard’s prestigious Éditions de la Pléiade, just weeks before Malraux’s passing in late November. 

For this second volume of Le Miroir des Limbes, Malraux explained the title La Corde et les Souris, through an epigraph in Hôtes de Passage (see photo). Gallimard later added Oraisons Funèbres (Funeral Orations) as an appendix to La Corde et les Souris in its Pléiade edition. 

We offer Le Miroir des Limbes and La Corde et les Souris in a beautifully uniform binding by Henry Duhayon. See individual book descriptions for further details. 

When purchased together, a 10% discount applies to the combined price of the individual volumes, and Oraisons Funèbres will be included as a complimentary addition.