Paris, Delaunay, 1829.
Two 8vo volumes of : I/ half-title, title, iv pp. advertisement, 450 pp. and 1 l. of errata, 1 Saint-Pierre de Rome’s engraving, 1 folded map of the ruins of Rome ; II/ half-title, title, 592 pp., Trajan column’s plate, few annotations and underlined passages in pencil, some foxing, handwritten ex libris in ink on the endpapers. Green half-calf, flat spines decorated with gilt border and blind-stamped tools, mottled edges. Contemporary binding.
200 x 125 mm.
First edition.
Clouzot, 257.
« Quite often foxed » says Clouzot.
Like many of his works, this one is dedicated to the « happy few », which proves that Stendhal was not duped by his calculation and that once again it was only for a few readers that he wrote. Les Promenades are presented as a travel diary covering almost two years from August 1827 to April 1829. We find Stendhal in his considerations on art, his ideas on beauty, on the sublime, his nuanced and always very personal appreciations of works of art, which complete the judgements made in l’Histoire de la peinture en Italie. What Stendhal once again draws his reader’s attention to here is that one must be prepared to see; it is an art that can be learnt and its knowledge increases the pleasure tenfold. But Stendhal is not only satisfied with showing us monuments; he takes us on a tour of Roman society, and the portraits of some of the characters he presents to us would be worthy, through the author’s psychological penetration, through that unique way that Stendhal has of x-raying, as it were, the living character and showing us the springs of his behaviour, of being included in his novels. With regard to this society and the pontifical court, Stendhal, with the natural inclination of his mind, is imperceptibly led to present us, by small touches, with an analysis of this strange Pontifical state; often his considerations go beyond the world he describes and extend to the whole society of his time.
Promenades dans Rome, by the accuracy of their observations and especially by the directness of Stendhal’s reflections, constitute one of the freest and liveliest presentations of an always original and lively thougth.
Copy preserved in its charming contemporary green half-calf bindings.
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