[GRANDVILLE] - REYBAUD (Louis). Jérôme Paturot in search of a social position. Paris: J.-J. Dubochet, Le Chevalier et Cie, 1846. - Large in-8, red half-maroquin with corners, gilt filets, spine ribbed and decorated, gilt head, cover and spine preserved (V. Champs). First illustrated edition, partly original, with numerous vignettes in the text and 32 wood-engraved plates, including the frontispiece, after GRANDVILLE. Jérôme Paturot is a weak and naive young bourgeois, son and grandson of hosiery workers, who believes himself to be good at everything and who tries by all means to make a place for himself in the world. His adventures, through different circles of society under the July Monarchy, all go wrong. In this story, Reybaud makes, through his character, a kind of summary of all that was done at the time to reach a social position, and denounces the shortcomings of the society of the time by making fun of romantic writers, women of letters, painters, and by attacking bourgeois stupidity, administrative corruption, the Press, etc. Grandville reluctantly illustrated this book, but he did so with talent and humour, making it one of his most beautiful productions. The illustration opposite page 132 represents an assembly of writers and artists, composed of Balzac, Dumas, Hugo, Stendhal, Berlioz, Litz, etc. A very fine copy bound by Victor Champs, complete with both covers and the spine of the general cover, and enriched with the first 24 issue covers, corresponding to issues 1 to 28. Page 102 is correctly numbered. Rubbing on the nerves, otherwise a perfectly preserved copy.