Stendhal Manuscript Donated, Saved from Auction Block

The NYTimes notes that a rare manuscript version of Stendhal's The Charterhouse of Parma, scheduled to sell at an auction today in Paris, has instead been donated by its owner to the French nation. "Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres hailed the gift by Pierre Berès as a 'generous gesture' that helped to 'bring to the national collection an essential piece of 19th-century literary history.'" Other items from the 93-year-old Berès' collection which will be sold at Drouot today include works by Balzac, Rimbaud, and Proust. The sale's value is estimated at $7.5 million.