Paris, Hippolyte Souverain, 1841.
Two parts bound in one volume 8vo [206 x 126 mm] of : I/ (1) ll, xii pp., (2) ll, pp. 21-337, (1) p. (errata), jump in number from p. 308 to 311 without missing; II/ (2) ll, 378 pp., (1) l, small têr on p. 37 without damage to the text, scattered foxing or spotting. The half-title of volume 1 has been removed at the time. Bound in brown half-sheepskin, flat spine decorated in long with a small tool depicting a shepherd and his dog. Contemporary binding.
« Rare » first edition (Clouzot, 23) of this novel by Balzac being part of the “Human Comedy”.
Vicaire, I, 216-217 ; Carteret, I, 76.
“The village priest is Abbot Bonnet, who in Montégnac, Limousin, assists Mrs Graslin in her generous charity work. The plot of the novel revolves around an old crime committed by a worker, Jên-François Tascheron, who was secretly Mme Graslin’s lover and went to the scaffold without making the slightest disclosure. And rêlly a shadow of mystery surrounds the rêder in this terrible story…” (Dictionary of the Works of the author, p. 3).
The fact that Balzac wrote his dedication on the half-title of the second volume, even though the two volumes were alrêdy bound in a single volume at the time, and that the copy was expunged from the half-title of the first volume, revêls the risks incurred by Balzac as he asserted his support to Henri de France and not to the then reigning Louis-Philippe.
He also calls the Count of Chambord Henri de France in this dedication dated March 1841, wherês the Count of Chambord did not adopt this name until 1844.
One can imagine that the Count of Chambord, receiving this dedicated present from his faithful subject Honoré de Balzac, was afraid that such a mark of loyalty would harm his author, and so asked him to transpose his dedication to the middle of the volume, on the half-title of the second volume, thus making it less visible and less compromising, removing at the same time the first half-title of the volume.
Fascinating copy of a prestigious provenance, of the highest historical interest, which revêls Balzac’s legitimist positions.
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