Definitive original editionive of the famous novel by Le Sage magnificently bound in contemporary red morocco with the arms of the Countess of Provence (1753-1810).
Le Sage, Alain-René. The History of Gil Blas of Santillane. Last revised and corrected edition.
Paris, By the Associated Booksellers, 1747.
4 volumes in-12 of: I/ (4) leaves, 402 pp., (3) leaves, 8 full-page engravings out of text; II/ (2) leaves, 342 pp., (2) leaves, 9 engravings; III/ (2) leaves, 381 pp., (7) pp., 8 engravings; IV/ (4) leaves, 369 pp., (10) pp., 7 engravings.
Set of 4 volumes in-12, full red morocco, large gold-stamped arms in the center of the boards, triple gilt fillet around the boards, richly decorated spines with raised bands, green morocco title and volume labels, gold fillet on the edges, inner gilded roulette, gilt edges. Binding armorial of the time.
161 x 94 mm.
True original edition of “Gil Blas de Santillane”, one of the great French novels of the 18th century which “Lagarde and Michard” hold in high regard.
Tchemerzine, IV, 178; Cohen 631.
Definitive edition, the last published by Le Sage, it served as a model for later editions.
It is adorned with 32 charming unsigned engravings outside the text, etched by Dubercelle.
“This edition, which has become somewhat rare, presents numerous corrections and considerable additions from the author, which form hardly less than a hundred pages; it must therefore be regarded as the first good edition of Le Sage’s masterpiece” wrote Brunet (III, 1006).
“Lagarde and Michard” devote a long analysis to this novel:
“Le Sage also applied his gifts of observation and satirical realism to the novel. He is mainly known for The Lame Devil (1707), inspired by a Spanish author, Luis Velez de Guevara, and The History of Gil Blas Blas of Santillane, published from 1715 to 1735 (Books I-VI in 1715; VII-IX in 1724; X-XII in 1735), which is much more original despite numerous borrowings. Among his other novels, we can mention The History of Guzman ofAlfarache (1732), The Bachelor of Salamanca (1734) and The Found Valise (1740).
The Picaresque Novel. Le Sage owes to his Spanish models, in addition to a multitude of anecdotes, the genre itself of the picaresque novel, practiced in Spain since the end of the 16th century. It involves narrating the varied and entertaining adventures of a picaro, a rather likeable rogue, a poor fellow whom social injustice turns into a rascal, but always capable of exclaiming like this character from Gil Blas “: “ I am no less ready to do a good deed than a bad one”. A kind boy, but weak, richer in good sentiments than firm in principles, Gil Blas himself hesitates between candor and cynicism. Buffeted by adventures and encounters, sometimes a valet, sometimes a confidant of the prime minister, sometimes outwitted, sometimes a trickster, Gil Blas shows little consistency, but he is always natural: Le Sage knew how to make him a true type.
The Customs of French Society. The author is less interested in the adventures of his hero than in the social settings he traverses. Completing the sketches of the The Lame Devil, which the story itself of this novel rendered necessarily brief and scattered (see p. 61), Le Sage takes us with Gil Blas from the den of bandits (p. 62) to the Court (p. 67), passing through the archbishop’s palace (p. 64). Nobility, clergy, doctors, men of letters, actors, servants, highwaymen, all social circles are represented, with their customs, quirks, and vices. Of course, the Spanish color should not mislead us – it is the society of the Regency that thus comes alive before our eyes.
Very biting, the satire remains cheerful. Le Sage sometimes imitates La Bruyère, especially in the Lame Devil, but he departs from classical art by the importance he places on material details, by a certain vividness in realism and by a keen interest in painting, not characters, but individuals.” (Lagarde and Michard).
“It is the variety of portraits and scenes that constitutes the main interest of Gil Blas. The portrait of the gouty canon, for instance, that of Doctor Sangrado, who kills his patients with too many bleedings, are not unworthy of the great Molière tradition. That of Gil Blas himself, disguised as a doctor, that of Don Carlos Alonzo de la Ventoleria who, by all sorts of methods, tries to repair the indignity of the years, that of Don Gonzale Pacheco, a shriveled old man, toy of his mistress, remain unforgettable. Despite some weaker pages, this book is of unparalleled freshness, especially when the writer delights in painting with a surprising sense of color, the spectacle of his fellow men, richer in vices than virtues.
‘Gil Blas thus remains one of the great documents of French realism, a vast tableau of the world, imbued with an indulgent but never cynical morality”.
Superb and precious copy bound in contemporary red morocco with the arms of the Countess of Provence (1753-1810), Marie-Joséphine-Louise-Bénédicte of Savoy, second daughter of Victor-Amédée III, Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia, and of Marie-Antoinette-Ferdinande, Infanta of Spain born in Turin on September 2, 1753, married on May 14, 1771, to Louis-Stanislas-Xavier, Count of Provence, later Louis XVIII, with whom she had no children. She took on the title of Countess of Lille during emigration and died at Hartwell, England on November 13, 1810.
The Countess of Provence, who prided herself on literature, had formed a very important collection, comprising 1665 volumes at the time of the Revolution, very well composed and uniformly bound in red morocco.
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