Trébutien and the printed witnesses

Use in the book

The principal text is the Journal section printed in the 1864 sixth edition, not a direct transcription of an autograph notebook. Its completeness extends to that section’s 116 entries and 188 paragraph pairs. A separate appendix supplies twelve paragraphs from five entries in Reliquiae I (1861). The crucial 1864 note says that wording from later loose sheets replaces the end of December 7 and the following four fragments. The editor’s confidence that Guérin would have preferred this wording is a conjecture about authorial preference, not surviving authorization. Differences can be substantive: the 1861 storm sequence includes a fatal coastal accident, an ethical qualification of the spectator’s pleasure, and a Virgilian cottage absent from the 1864 version. Historical notes also report erased wording and missing or detached leaves; their explanations must not be filled out by speculation. The signed O. L. V. note remains a note with unexpanded initials. Finally, the English translation and twenty-four translator notes belong to the 2026 edition. They elucidate Guérin without becoming part of his utterance.

Places to read

1. 7 December 1833 · ¶4The historical substitution note accompanies the start of the replaced portion and identifies the two printed textual states.
2. 8 December 1833 · ¶3 · 1861 variantThe earlier witness explicitly makes the absence of present danger to living beings a condition of this enjoyment.
3. 8 December 1833 · ¶5 · 1861 variantThe fatal cliff accident belongs to the 1861 sequence only; its omission materially changes the surrounding account.
4. 2 February 1835 · ¶5The historical note after this passage reports a detached leaf and erased lines, without recovering their contents.

Translation in this edition

The earlier appendix covers 1861 pp. 83–99: the historical note cites 83–97, and the supplied edition extends through 99 only to finish December 21. The two witnesses retain separate IDs and paragraph divisions.