LAMARTINE (Alphonse de). Jocelyn. Episode. Diary found in a village priest's house. Paris : Furne et Charles Gosselin, 1836. - 2 volumes in-8, bradel half red morocco with corners, smooth spine, untrimmed, cover preserved (E. Carayon). First edition of Lamartine's capital work. It is in the Preface that Lamartine gives some keys to the making of his text. According to him, it is an "intimate epic" to which he "only had to sew a prologue and an epilogue, to make of this episode a kind of small poem (sic) having its beginning and its end. He thus specifies: "The work is immense, I executed several parts of it at various times of my life; dissatisfied with some of them, I threw them in the fire, others are preserved, others await only leisure and inspiration to bloom". Copy complete with yellow covers with romantic frame and woodcut vignette after Tony Johannot in the centre. Beautiful copy bound by Carayon, from the famous and rich library of Robert Hoe. Provenance: Robert Hoe, with ex-libris.