Rare Edition of the M7emoires de Mr d’Artagnan, King’s Musketeer,
direct source of inspiration for The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.
Precious copy belonging to the famous Countess of Tencin.
[Courtilz de Sandras, Gatien]. M7emoires de Monsieur d’Artagnan, Captain-Lieutenant of the first Company of the King’s Musketeers, Containing numerous particular & secret events that took place during the Reign of Louis the Great.
Amsterdam, Pierre Rouge, 1700.
4 volumes in 12mo: I/(5) ff. including 1 portrait, 456 pp., (8) ff., small tear without loss p. 249; II/ 440 pp., (7) ff., small strip of paper cut at the top of the title; III/ 478 pp., (8) ff.; IV/ 442 pp., (11) ff., small strip of paper cut at the top of the title. Full brown calf, spine with raised bands adorned with gilt fleurs-de-lis, speckled edges. Binding of the time.
147 x 80 mm.
Rare edition of this work that inspired Dumas for his Three Musketeers. Courtilz de Sandras (1644-1712) was himself a musketeer before leaving the army to live by his pen.
Rare edition of this “very curious” work (Jacob), the source of the famous Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.
“M. Alexandre Dumas made advantageous use of the work written by Courtils de Sandras for his novel entitled The Three Musketeers. The names of Athos, Portos, and Aramis, those picturesque names, are clearly spelled out there; the duels, the loves of D’Artagnan, and his adventures with Milady are truly recounted.” (Quérard).
“The M7emoires de d’Artagnan should be seen as a prefiguration of the realist novel because Courtilz de Sandras gave them this appearance of historical truth to better captivate his readers. In the preface, the author claims to draw the material of his work from D’Artagnan’s papers” (Dictionary of Authors, I, 699).
bbThree writers collaborated on The Three Musketeers: Gatien de Courtilz for the scenario and plot; Maquet for the rough draft, the sketch, and in a way, the model; Alexandre Dumas for the animation of the story and the dialogues, the color, the style, the life.” 7bb(Henri d’Alméras)7bb
In the M7emoires de Mr de d’Artagnan, the myth of the minor gentleman who plays an important role in an unchanging social order is elaborated.
Gatien de Courtilz sieur de Sandras (1644-1712) led a rather tumultuous life due to his polemical writings.
“The boldness of his pen earned him twelve years in the Bastille.” (Quérard).
In his writings, he presents a colorful tableau of the end of the great century, rich in anecdotes and scandals. The author would write the work in the Bastille where he had allegedly met D’Artagnan, and where censored, seized books were deposited in his “hell,” which would become “the most beautiful library, carefully inventoried, of banned works in the kingdom.” (Porter of the Carthusian).
Often reprinted despite confiscations and bans, this text embroiders on the real life of Charles de Batz-Castelmore, Count of d’Artagnan (1600-1673), a musketeer in the service of Mazarin.
The writer had published a Political Testament in which he openly criticized the absolutism of King Louis XIV.
The M7emoires de d’Artagnan is for the author another opportunity to elaborate a critique of the regime.
Precious copy from the library of the famous Countess of Tencin.
Claudine-Alexandrine Guérin de Tencin, Baroness of Saint-Martin in the Isle of Ré, born on April 27, 1682, in Grenoble, died on December 4, 1749, in Paris, was a French woman of letters and salonnière. She is the mother of d’Alembert.
After twenty-two years forcibly spent in a convent, she moved to Paris in 1711 and was introduced to the circles of power through her ties to Cardinal Dubois. Six years later, she would open one of the most renowned salons of the time. First primarily devoted to politics and finance with the speculators of the
