DEFOE Robinson

1There is a book which, to my taste, offers the most delightful treatise on natural education.

This book will be the first my Emile reads: it alone will compose his library for a long time, and it will always hold a distinguished place there. What, then, is this marvelous book?

It is Robinson Crusoe. 7 (J.J. Rousseau).

Superb copy bound in morocco leather from the period of Mouillé.

Amsterdam, 1754.

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Containing, among other events, the stay he made for twenty-eight years on a deserted island situated on the coast of America, near the mouth of the great Oroonoque River. The whole written by himself. Translated from the English. Fifth edition.

Leiden, E. Luzac Junior, Amsterdam, Z. Chatelain et fils, 1754.

3 volumes in-12 of 1 frontispiece, xiv pp., 629 pp., 1 folded map and 6 plates out of text; (1) f., viii pp., 562 pp., 7 figures; xxx pp., (2), 603 pp., 7 figures.

Red morocco, smooth spine decorated with fine tools, triple gilt fillet frame on the covers, decorated headpieces, gilt edges. Binding of the period.

164 x 95 mm.

First French translation of the Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Juste van Effen and Themiseul de Saint-Hyacinthe. It originally appeared in 1720-1721 in another version.

Cohen, 405; Sander, 711; Sabin, 72218; Catalogue Rothschild, II, no. 1759; PMM, 180.

One of the most interesting books illustrated by Bernard Picart,

1 decorated with a folded map and 21 figures by the artist, only one signed. 7 (Cohen).

1 One of the most famous books in world literature; it is the adventure of the sailor Selkirk, who was abandoned in 1705 on the island of Juan Fernandez off the coast of Chile. After four years of solitude, he had almost returned to a state of savagery.

Robinson Crusoe flees from home, embarks, but his ship is wrecked, and as the only survivor, he ends up on a desert island. With unheard ingenuity, he organizes his solitary existence. He meets Friday, 1 the good savage 7.

Everything related to voyages greatly pleased in Robinson Crusoe, to the point that it overshadowed the story’s central theme. It took Rousseau’s Emile to draw attention to what is the main idea of the work: the struggle of man alone against nature.

One thing is certain: this story is an incomparable success. 1 It was Defoe, notes Jean Prévost, who prepared the prodigious blossoming of realist novels in the 18th century.

7 (Dictionnaire des 7uvres).

1 The special form of adventure that he chose and even the name of his hero have been adopted by countless imitators. At least equally relevant for the purpose is the figure of the lonely human being subduing the pitiless forces of nature; going back to nature and portraying the 1noble savage7 in a way that made the book required reading for Rousseau’s Emile. 7 (P.M.M.)

In Emile, Jean-Jacques Rousseau imagines 1 a unique book that alone deserves to be saved, to the exclusion of all others. Robinson Crusoe alone occupies this coveted place. 7 (F. Gevrey).

1 There is a book which, to my taste, offers the most delightful treatise on natural education. This book will be the first my Emile reads: it alone will compose his library for a long time, and it will always hold a distinguished place there. As long as our taste is not spoiled, its reading will always please us. What, then, is this marvelous book? Is it Aristotle? Is it Pliny? Is it Buffon? No, it is Robinson Crusoe. 7 (J.J. Rousseau).

The original edition of this book, one of the most appreciated in Western literature, appeared in English in 1720. A mediocre copy was auctioned for 200,000 0 22 years ago. The first print run dates from 1720-1721. Following the success of the illustrator, other editions appeared in 1727, 1754, 1760, 1770, etc.

Copies bound in beautiful old morocco are rare and highly sought after.

Cohen does not cite any for the 1720 editions and only one, bound by Derôme, for the current 1754 edition.

It was auctioned for 25,000 FF by Sotheby’s Monaco in 1981 and resold for 35,000 FF (5,300 0) in May 1982, 41 years ago by Pierre Bérès (Cat 73 no. 114). On May 5, 2005, the 1727 copy similarly bound was sold for 18,000 0.

Very beautiful copy in period red morocco, attributable to Mouillé 1 bookbinder with a confidential production7 (Ramsden, French Bookbinders 1789-1848, p. 144). Active at the end of the 18th century until 1803, this Parisian bookbinder favored the English style for the decoration of his bindings, then in vogue. Mouillé settled on rue Saint Jacques in the same house as Derome (Thoinan, French Bookbinders, 1893, p. 353).

Provenance: label of the Parisian bookseller Théophile Belin who owned a bookstore at 48 rue Cambon from 1904 to 1921.