Paris, Charpentier, 1863.
2 parts in 2 volumes 12mo [176 x 112 mm] of : I/ (2) ll., iv pp, 373, (3) ; II/ (2) ll., 382 pp., (2). Bound in blond half-calf, spines ribbed with straight and dotted gilt fillets, green and havana morocco lettering pieces, mottled edges. Contemporary binding.
“Rare first edition” (Bulletin Morgand et Fatout, n°8224) of Theophile Gautier’s masterpiece.
“ No copy on large paper exist for this work, one of Gautier’s masterpieces“ (Carteret, I, 333).
“Sought after. Rare in a contemporary good quality binding” (Clouzot, 129).
“Firstly he introduces us to an abandoned castle in Gascony, in the first half of the 17th century, where the last heirs of the Sigognac family lives melancholically in misery, for only company an old valet; a beanpole and a cat. A troop of nine wandering actors stops his loneliness full of laziness, by asking him for hospitality for a night. These strange people, accompanied with four women, with their joy, their language gracefully mannered, with their good mood without ulterior motive, delight the young baron Sigognac and persuade him to join them, at least to Paris, where he will find better fortune. Then, the young man ends up being very friend with these people and, when Matamore died, he accepts to take his place by taking the name of Capitaine Fracasse. A profound and delicate love starts to bind him to young Isabelle. Meanwhile, odd events happen and nice descriptions of countries, villages, hostels, taverns, hovels, theaters and cities pass before our eyes… It is clear that this work derives from Scarron’s ‘Roman comique’. Once again, Gautier’s best inspiration is of descriptive nature: he has drawn and colored a fine series of Louis XIII prints, as he had tried to make a collection of exquisite paintings from the end of the 18th century in ‘Mademoiselle de Maupin’ […] The book has to be considered as the most accomplished and characteristic work in prose of this picturesque author.” (Dictionnaire des Œuvres, I, 555).
A fine copy of Gautier’s masterpiece in its elegant contemporary binding.
Rare in this condition.
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