Verhaeren, Emile. Poemes (Nouvelle Serie) : Les Soirs, Les Debacles, Les Flambeaux noirs. Neuvieme edition. Paris, 1914. In French.

Verhaeren, Emile (1855-1916). Poemes (Nouvelle Serie) : Les Soirs, Les Debacles, Les Flambeaux noirs. Neuvieme edition (le texte de l'edition originale de ce recueil combine ayant paru chez Mercure de France en 1896).
Paris : Societe du Mercure de France, 1914. 214 pages.
Reliure d'epoque demi-cuir.
Sur la garde de tete - inscription manuscrite en russe : "Тебе от меня" (a toi, de moi), sans nom ni signature.
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Verhaeren, Emile (1855-1916). Poems (New Series) : Les Soirs, Les Debacles, Les Flambeaux noirs. Ninth printing (the text of the combined edition first published by Mercure de France in 1896).
Paris : Societe du Mercure de France, 1914. 214 pp.
Period quarter-leather binding.
Front flyleaf bearing a manuscript gift inscription in Russian: "To you, from me," unsigned and naming no recipient.
Binding good: rubbing to corners and spine ends. Text block very good: clean, complete.

A later printing of Emile Verhaeren's dark early trilogy, "Les Soirs" (1887), "Les Debacles" (1888) and "Les Flambeaux noirs" (1890-91), gathered together as a single "Nouvelle Serie" volume by Mercure de France in 1896 and kept continuously in print into the 1940s, a testament to Verhaeren's enduring reputation as one of the most influential Belgian Symbolist poets writing in French. The three collections mark the bleakest phase of Verhaeren's early career, written during a period of personal crisis, and are counted among the foundational texts of Symbolist free verse; their original individual editions, issued by Edmond Deman in Brussels in tiny runs of 100 copies on Hollande paper, had their first fifty numbered copies illustrated by Odilon Redon, a celebrated rarity distinct from the present combined trade edition, which carries text only. Verhaeren's poetry found an unusually receptive readership in Russia, where Valery Bryusov's translations helped make him one of the more widely read French-language poets among the Symbolists of the Russian Silver Age; the unsigned Russian gift inscription on this copy's flyleaf, reading simply "To you, from me," is consistent with that pattern of reception, though the individuals involved cannot now be identified. The private quarter-leather binding, evidently commissioned by an early owner rather than issued by the publisher, further marks the volume as a valued personal possession rather than an ordinary trade copy.