GONCOURT (Edmond and Jules de). Sophie Arnould d'après sa correspondance et ses mémoires inédits. Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1857. - In-12, 195x120: (2 ff.), 197 pp., (1 f.), printed cover. Red half-maroquin, ornate ribbed spine, untrimmed, cover and spine preserved (Bianchi). Oberlé, 525. First edition of this biography of the actress and singer Sophie Arnould (1740-1802), printed in an edition of 1,110 copies, based on her manuscripts and letters acquired by the Goncourt brothers from Charavay. ONE OF 10 EXEMPLIES ON VERGÉ PAPER, the only large paper copy, with only 30 copies on ordinary paper, containing a two-page appendix reproducing Doctor Morand's certificate on Sophie Arnould's health, and restoring the licentious passages censored in the text. Attached separately is a portrait of Sophie Arnould on chine collé, engraved by Adolphe Pierre Riffaut after Delatour. A good first-edition copy, with the good cover announcing Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal to appear in April 1857. Beautifully bound by Bianchi, a bookbinder from Nice who practiced during the second quarter of the 20th century. Restoration to cover.