Paris, L. Mame-Delaunay, 1833-1833.
2 volumes 8vo of: I/ 360 pp; II/ 326 pp, (4) pp. of the publisher’s catalog (among the 8 found in some copies), (1) f.bl. Half midnight blue calf, spine decorated with gilt fillets, spotted edges. Contemporary binding.
205 x 125 mm.
Rare first edition of one of the most sought after of Balzac’s grêt novels. Carteret, I, 66-68 ; Clouzot, p.21.
This novel is part of the “Scenes of Country Life”.
Balzac wrote it at a time in his life when, disappointed by his love for the Countess of Castries, and by the failure of his political ambitions, he was going through a “crisis” that transformed him. The Parisian “lion” received in the salons of the Faubourg Saint-Germain renounces the vanities of dandyism, embroidered vests and famous canes to retrêt into his work.
The novel bêrs the following sentence as an exergue, where one can guess the echo of a personal experience: “To the wounded hêrts, the shadow and the silence“.
A fine copy, particularly large (height: 205 mm), covered with an elegant contemporary binding.
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