Paris, Urbain Canel, 1829.
4 12mo volumes [178 x 103 mm] of: I/ xxiii pp., (1) bl.l., 192 pp.; II/ (2) ll., 224 pp.; III/ (2) ll., 243 pp.; IV/ (2) ll., 331 pp.
Red quarter-straight-grained-morocco, flat spine decorated with gilt fleurons and fillets, untrimmed, gilt over untrimmed top edge, blue wrappers and spines preserved. E. & A. Maylander.
Very rare first edition of Balzac’s first signed work.
Vicaire, I, p. 179; Carteret, I, p.58; S. Vachon, Les travaux et les jours d’Honoré de Balzac, p. 87.
This first novel of Balzac signed with his real name without the particle marks the beginning of the cycle of “The Human Comedy”.
It is Balzac’s first masterpiece that will be entirely revised and reprinted in 1834 under the title “Les Chouans”.
In this novel figure the “Scenes of military life”.
The action takes place in 1799 while the monarchic Brittany is stirred up against the revolutionary government.
The extreme rarity of this first text in first edition is underlined by the bibliographers.
“Very rare, either in wrappers, or in contemporary binding.
The first edition of the ‘Chouans’ is far less rare than this very first edition”.
Clouzot, Guide du bibliophile français, 19.
A precious copy of this first edition “of the utmost rarity”, complete with its blue wrappers and enriched with a photography of Balzac pasted at the beginning (86 x 55 mm).
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