DUMAS, Alexandre et GAILLARDET La Tour de Nesle, Drame en cinq actes et en neuf tableaux, par MM. Gaillardet et ***, représenté, pour la première fois, à Paris, sur le théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin, le 29 mai 1832.

First edition, “rare and very sought-after” (Clouzot p. 94) of this drama by Alexandre Dumas represented for the first time in Paris at the theatre of Porte Saint-Martin on May 29^th 1832.

« Famous play that became rare. » Carteret, I, 314.

Among Alexandre Dumas’ 251 recorded works by the bibliographer M. Clouzot (Guide du bibliophile français, XIX^e siècle, Paris, 1996) only 4 bear the mention “highly sought-after”: « Les Trois Mousquetaires »; « Le Comte de Monte-Christo » ; « La Tour de Nesle » ; « Mes Mémoires ».

“Very rare. Copy with wrappers. Sold” we could read on the Bulletin de la Librairie Morgand et Fatout dès 1884 (n°11117).

“Drama in five acts by Alexandre Dumas father (1803-1870) and Frédéric Gaillardet (1808-1882), played in 1832. A legend makes of Nesle’s tower the theater of more than one crime: it is there indeed that Marguerite de Bourgogne, King Louis X’s legitimate wife and her own sisters would have massacre their lovers after a certain love night, that nobody ever witnessed. This legend provided the subject of a drama that interest us, one fo the first romantic theatre after Hernani’s triumph by Victor Hugo in 1830.” (Dictionnaire des Œuvres, VI, p. 454).

A precious wide-margined copy of this literary first edition of the utmost rarity, without foxing, bound by Champs towards 1870.