DOVALLE Charles. Le Sylphe. Poésies de feu Ch. Dovalle, précédées d'une notice par M. Louvet, et d'une préface par Victor Hugo. Paris, Ladvocat, 1830; in-8 of [2]-xxiv-222-[2] pp. (the false title leaf is missing), antique garnet half-chagrin binding, ribbed spine, gilt numeral at tail, combed head. Posthumous first edition with a preface by Victor Hugo. Charles Dovalle died in a duel at the age of twenty-two, leaving a promising body of work that his friends were keen to publish. The last, unfinished work, which was in Dovalle's wallet at the time of the duel, was struck by a bullet; the publisher has used typographical blanks to fill in the missing words. This is an exceptional copy, made up in his own name by Georges Claretie, son of the academician Jules Claretie. It is enriched by several documents offered by Clara Dovalle, the poet's sister who kept his memory alive, including a portrait, possibly from life and the only one known: - a moving autograph letter from Charles Dovalle to the Minister of the Interior, Martignac, asking for his support - another copied from Jules Janin to Clara Dovalle "I have remained faithful to this gentle ghost". - 2 letters from Clara Dovalle to Jules Claretie: "I have a lot of plays that M. Louvet has kept for thirty years! - an autograph letter from Chauvin and Le Rohellec (Charles Dovalle's nephew and son-in-law), about family papers and manuscripts - an autograph note from Georges Claretie about the manuscript found in Dovalle's wallet with the bullet hole that killed him: I don't know what the text of the manuscript with the bullet hole is (page 221) because Édouard Fournier quoted it differently to my father (...) Fournier reconstructed them in this way... [the printed text of this second quatrain is different]. - Photographic portrait of Charles Dovalle after a self-portrait given to Jules Claretie and photographic portrait of Clara Dovalle. - Portrait of Dovalle in graphite, apparently from life. This portrait also appears to be the basis for the rare representations of Dovalle found in later editions. These documents contain first-hand information about the poet. Georges Claretie (1875-1936) was a lawyer at the Paris Court of Appeal and a journalist with Le Figaro (gilt on spine) - Spine faded.