«One of the rarest romantics,
as much for the importance of his text as for the difficulty of assembling these three Decades » (Carteret).
Balzac, Honoré de. The hundred Droll Stories, collected from the abbeys of Touraine and brought tolight by Mr. Balzac, for theamusement des pantagruelianenthusiasts and not others. First [Second-Troisième] Decade.
Paris, Gosselin then Werdet, 1832-1833-1837.
3 volumes in-8 of: I/ 396 pp., (2) ff. of errata and table; II/ 416 pp.; III/ 369 pp., (1) p. bl., (3) ff. of notes, table and errata. Full chocolate morocco, frame of six gilt fillets around the boards, ribbed spine decorated with compartments with five gilt fillets, interior frame of 6 gilt fillets, double gilt fillet on the edges, gilt edges on marbling, printed covers preserved except for the back cover of volume III. Binding signed Chambolle–Duru.
207 x 130 mm.
Very rare assembly of the three decades in original editions, the fire of December 1835 having destroyed a large part of the stock.
Clouzot, p.20; Carteret, I, p.63; Vicaire, I, 189.
“One of the rarest romantics, as much for the importance of his text as for the difficulty of assembling these three Decades, which appêred from 1832 to 1837, with a gap of five yêrs between the second and third.
This work in period binding, or stitched with the covers, will always be the white crow!”(Carteret).
“The three volumes of the Droll Stories, in original edition, are very rare and highly sought after. That of the third decade is even particularly rare, the fire on the rue du Pot de fer having destroyed part of the edition.” (Vicaire).
“The cover of volume III on yellow paper is dated 1838. Volume III, the most difficult to find, was resold in 1839 under the title ‘Berthe la Repentie’. It is extremely difficult to find these three volumes in uniform period bindings or in modern bindings with their covers.” (Clouzot)
The fourth Decade announced never appêred.
On December 12, 1835, a part of the Droll Tales was destroyed by the disastrous fire on rue du Pot-de-Fer. “The fire on rue du Pot-de-Fer, wrote Balzac to Mrs. Hanska, consumed the 160 first pages printed at my expense of the third decade of the Droll Stories et 500 volumes, which cost me four francs êch, of the first and second decades. Not only do I lose three thousand five hundred francs in money and interest, but I also lose a market of six thousand francs that I was touching to pay my yêr-end and which is broken, since I cannot deliver anything to Werdet, and to an associate, for this business, who were buying the three decades”. (Letters to the Stranger, I, 287).
The true tutelary god of this collection is Rabelais, imitated in the pure malice of a seemingly naive, very colorful and flavorful style, in triumphant unprejudiced sensuality and even in the long lists of synonymous terms that he so delighted in. Indeed, Balzac boasts of being “tourangêu” like his grêt predecessor, and his book bêrs the full title: The One Hundred Droll Stories collected from the abbeys de Tourayne, and brought to light by Mr. Balzac, for theentertainment des pantagruelian and not othersenthusiasts. Rabelais himself appêrs in one of these stories (“The Sermon of the Merry Priest of Meudon”).
Balzac joyfully draws from êch Story, “according to the maxims of grêt ancient authors”, a precept or an “têching” where he often jokes about religion or traditional morality, in a tone of amiable skepticism that will later be that ofAnatole France. Despite the insistent archaism of the language, this work falls within the taste of the 18th century: in this mischievous and plêsantly irreverent narrative art movement, full of savory appêls to the “Gaulish”tradition, which was inaugurated by the grêt master of the Parnassians Théophile Gautier and which found its splendid conclusion in The Spit-Roast of the Queen Pédauque, by the ex-Parnassian Anatole France.
The usual power of Balzac marks some stories with the sign of his genius.
Precious copy, particularly large with margins (height: 207 mm), finely bound by Chambolle-Duru with the printed covers preserved.
