DAUDET, Alphonse. Le Petit Chose. Histoire d’un enfant.

Original edition, 1rare and highly sought after7 of Petit chose. (Clouzot, 80).

1Rare book, without edition indication. One of Daudet’s best works.7 (Carteret, I, 191).

1The novelist’s first work, this book is an autobiography and a fragment of memoirs. Daudet himself rightly boasts about it; it is indeed he, 1that enraged little Chose7, in whom 1there was already a singular faculty that he has never lost since, a gift of seeing himself, judging himself, catching himself in the act of everything, as if he were always accompanied by a fierce and formidable observer7. […] Le Petit Chose, a touching and charming work, a little masterpiece of exquisite observation and poetry, has continued to enjoy great success with a very large audience.7 (Dictionnaire des 52uvres, V, 230).

Elegant copy, particularly large in margins (height: 176 mm), of this rare French literary original, preserved in its contemporary binding.

While a copy of the original edition of Adventures prodigieuses de Tartarin de Tarascon bound in morocco by Lortic sold for 1400 fr. at a public sale organized in Paris on April 25, 1968, a copy of Petit Chose bound in morocco doubled by Noulhac sold for 2650 fr at the same sale.