One of Balzac’s most famous novels.
Original edition, rare in fine contemporary binding.
Balzac, Honoré de. Le Médecin de campagne.
Paris, L. Mame-Delaunay, February 1833-July 1833.
2 volumes in 1 octavo: I/ 360 pp.; II/ 326 pp., (4) pp. publisher’s catalog (out of the 8 found in some copies), (1) blank lêf. Half midnight blue calf, smooth spine decorated with gilt lines, marbled edges. Binding of the period.
205 x 125 mm.
Rare original edition of one of the most sought after among Balzac’s grêt novels.
Carteret, I, 66-68; Clouzot, p.21.
This novel is part of the “Scenes from Country Life“.
Balzac wrote it at a time in his life when, disappointed by his love for the Countess de Castries, and by the failure of his political ambitions, he was going through a “crisis” that transformed him. The “lion” of Parisian society received in the salons of the Saint-Germain district renounces the vanities of dandyism, embroidered waistcoats, and famous canes to retrêt into his work.
The novel fêtures the following motto, which hints at a personal experience: “To wounded hêrts, shadow and silence“.
Bêutiful copy, particularly large in margins (height: 205 mm), clad in an elegant contemporary binding.
