Lot n° 100
Estimation :
800 - 1200
EUR
BALZAC (Honoré de). - Lot 100
BALZAC (Honoré de).
Splendors and miseries of the courtesans.
Paris, 1845-1848. - 4 parts in 8 volumes in-8. Red half-maroquin, spine ribbed, gilt head, untrimmed (Ateliers Laurenchet for the first three and last three volumes, and Amand for the other two).
Rare set of the four parts forming the totality of this famous novelistic fresco by Honoré de Balzac.
Includes :
- Splendors and miseries of courtesans. Esther. Paris: L. de Potter, 1845 [1844]. - 3 volumes in-8, 218 x 137: XVI pp. (1 f.), pp. (23)-337, (1 f.), printed cover; 326 pp. printed cover; 342 pp. printed cover.
Partly original edition comprising the first two parts: Comment aiment les filles and À combien l'amour revient aux vieillards. Half of the first part had previously appeared in La Torpille (Werdet, 1838) and the end of this part and almost all of the second had been serialized in the Parisien in 1843 under the title Esther ou les amours d'un vieux banquier.
This edition, although dated 1845, appeared in 1844. It is recorded on November 23, 1844 in La Bibliographie de la France.
Copy complete with cover plates (lined). Some foxing.
- Un drame dans les prisons. Paris : Hippolyte Souverain, 1847. - 2 volumes in-8, 217 x 136 : 292 pp. ; 300 pp.
First separate edition of the third part of Splendours and miseries of courtesans. It first appeared in serial form in 1846 under the title Une instruction criminelle and was reprinted the same year in La Condition humaine, entitled Où mènent les mauvais chemins. The last chapter contains a life sketch of a businessman addressed to Baron James de Rothschild.
Copy in Amand binding, without covers. Some foxing. Tear in the margin of pages 285 to 292 in the second volume, without affecting the text.
- La Dernière incarnation de Vautrin. Paris : Louis Chlendowski, 1848. - 3 volumes in-8, 218 x 137: 305 pp, (1 f.), printed cover; 306 pp, (1 f.), printed cover; 300 pp, printed cover.
Rare first edition of the fourth and last part of Splendours and miseries of courtesans. It had been published in serial form in the Presse in April-May 1847, and is
followed by Une rue de Paris et son habitant, also in first edition
.
Copy complete of the covers, restored. Some foxing.
The meeting of these 4 parts in these editions is very rare. The set was bound uniformly at two different periods, by Amand and by the Laurenchet workshops.
Some wear to the spines, notably those of the two volumes bound by Amand.
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