1900 Scarce French First Edition - Emile Nelligan, Soirees du Chateau de Ramezay

Author: École littéraire de Montréal (including Émile Nelligan, Louis Fréchette, Albert Lozeau, Hector Demers, and others).
Title: Les Soirées du Château de Ramezay.
Publisher: Montréal, Eusèbe Sénécal & Cie, Imprimeurs-Éditeurs, 1900. First edition.
Language: Text in French.
Size: 7.5 × 5 inches.
Pages: xv-402 pages.
Binding: Attractive and very good contemporary quarter red morocco binding over marbled paper boards. Spine with raised bands and gilt lettering (Les Soirées du Château de Ramezay). Marbled endpapers (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. A handsome early 20th-century Quebec private binding.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean, rare toning - as shown, old ownership signature to title page, and handwritten page number references by a previous owner to the final page - as shown). 

The book: Published in Montreal in 1900, Les Soirées du Château de Ramezay is a cornerstone publication of the École littéraire de Montréal and is especially prized for including the first poems by Émile Nelligan published in book form. Nelligan would later become the most celebrated French Canadian poet of his generation, and early printed appearances of his work are increasingly sought after by collectors and institutions alike. Beyond Nelligan, the volume documents a defining moment in Quebec literary history, capturing the emergence of a modern poetic voice at the turn of the 20th century. Copies surviving in contemporary fine bindings, such as the present example, are becoming notably scarce on the market.

The authors: The École littéraire de Montréal, founded in 1895, was instrumental in shaping modern French Canadian literature. Its members promoted literary experimentation, symbolism, and artistic independence, helping move Quebec literature toward a more modern European-influenced aesthetic.

Émile Nelligan: Émile Nelligan (1879–1941) is widely regarded as one of the greatest poets in Quebec literary history. Despite a tragically short creative career, his poetry left an enduring mark on French Canadian culture. His early appearance in this volume represents an important milestone in the publication history of his work, making Les Soirées du Château de Ramezay a key book for collectors of Quebec literary first appearances.