Justin Croft Antiquarian Books

VILLARS, Marie Gigault de Bellefonds, marquise de and Marie Angélique du Gué Bagnoles, marquise de COULANGES, and others. : Lettres De Mmes. De Villars, De Coulanges, Et De La Fayette; De Ninon De L’enclos, Et De Mademoiselle Aïssé;
accompagnées De Notices Biographiques, De Notes Explicatives, Et De La Coquette Vengée, Par Ninon De L’enclos. Seconde Édition.

A handsome copy of this epistolary collection.

HIPPOCRATES. : Oeuvres D’hippocrate. Aphorismes, Traduits D'après La Collation De Vingt-deux Manuscrits, Et Des Interprètes Orientaux Par Lefebvre De Villebrune.

First edition of this French translation by Lefebvre de Villebrune.

(NAPOLEON). [PISSOT, Noël Laurent]. : Le Mea Culpa De Napoléon Buonaparte.

A rare anti-Napolen pamphlet, presumably coinciding with his abdication. The text opens with the quotation from Corneille: T’yran, descends du trône, et fais place à ton maître’. There appear to have been several issues of the same year, one printed at Rouen. All are very rare.

(BIBLIOTHÈQUE UNIVERSELLE DES ROMANS). : Bibliothèque Universelle Des Romans, Ouvrage Périodique, Dans Lequel On Donne L’analyse Raisonnée Des Romans Anciens & Modernes, François, Ou Traduits Dans Notre Langue; Avex Des Anecdotes & Des Notices Historiques & Critiques Concernant Les Auteurs Ou Leurs Ouvrages; Ainsi Que Les Moeurs, Les Usages Du Temps, Les Circonstances Particulières & Relatives, & Les Personnages Connus, Déguisés Ou Emblêmatiques

A good run of this influential literary journal published from 1775-1789, which owed much to the medieval adaptations of the Comte de Tressan (see below). It was influential in shaping the gothic taste in French literature.

[SCHLEGEL, Charles-Guillaume-Frédéric]. : Lothaire Et Maller, Roman De Chevalerie, Traduit De L’allemend.

First edition. A medieval chivalric romance (Lohier et Mallart) supposedly translated into modern French by a fourteen-year-old boy, sometimes identified as Albert the son of Madame de Staël. The Preface explains that the original medieval text was written in ‘langue romance’ by Marguerite, comtesse de Vaudemeont, duchesse de Lorraine and that it was translated into German in 1405 by her daughter Elisabeth, comtesse de Nassau-Saarbrük. Fréderic Schlegel (1772-1829) rendered it in modern German,...

SCOTT, Sir Walter. : Vie De Napoléon Buonaparte, Empereur Des Français, Précédée D’un Tableau Préliminaire De La Révolution Française.

The million or so words of Scott’s Life of Napoleon Buonaparte (1827) were completed in less than a year (a period which included research visits to both London and Paris). Immediately translated into French, the work was issued both in 8vo (in 9 volumes) and 12mo (in 18), the latter (as in our copy) presumably intended to match the novels already printed in that format. The work, highly critical of its subject, caused a furore in Paris.

‘Upon its publication in France in 1827, Scott...

WIELAND, Christoph Martin. : Peregrinus Protée, Ou, Les Dangers De L’enthousiasme.

First edition in French of Wieland’s philosophical novel Geheime Geschichte des Philosophen Peregrinus Proteus (1791), on the life and death of cynic philosopher Peregrinus Proteus, best-known for having committed suicide at the Olympic Games of 165AD, gving his own funeral oration and throwing himself upon a pyre. It was an important ext for the Romantic movement and appeared in English in 1796.

[JOHNSON, Samuel]. : The Rambler. In Four Volumes ... The Sixth Edition.

A lovely example of French female readership for Johnson’s Rambler (1750-2). Though enthusiastically read in France, The Rambler did not appear in French translation until 1785 (as Morceaux choisis) and in full in 1786 (Rochedieu).

[BARANTE, Guillaume-Prosper Brugière]. : De La Littérature Française Pendant Le Dix-huitième Siècle.

First edition. An influential survey of the literature of the siècle des lumières, praised by Madame de Staël and by Goethe (who wrote that it said ‘neither too much nor too little’) and which brought its author to the attention of Napoleon. Barante’s method was historical and he advanced the thesis that literature could in itself become an institution, especially when other institutions failed (as they had in the Revolution).

ARLINCOURT, [Victor-Prévost, Vicomte d’]. : Le Renégat.

First edition of d’Arlincourt’s follow-up to Le Solitaire (1821). His success seems to have been chiefly among female readers who devoured his novels and hailed him as a ‘new Ossian’. Often pilloried by the critics (who mockingly referred to him as ‘le vicomte inversif’ for his inversion-packed syntax) his influence was nonetheless great, notably on realists such as Balzac (who also parodied him). In 1834 The Foreign Quarterly Review commented on his novels: ‘The style of those romances, stilte...

GAY, Sophie. : Le Moqueur Amoureux.

First edition. Sophie Gay (1776-1852) was a prolific and popular novelist of the Directoire and Empire periods.

[GRAFFIGNY, Françoise Paule Huguet de]. : Lettres D’une Péruvienne. Nouvelle Édition Augmentée De Plusieurs Lettres Et D’une Introduction À L’histoire.

First published in 1747; Madame de Graffigny’s epistolary novel was a best-seller in numerous early editions. This illustrated version, with the addition of the suite entitled Lettres d’Aza (first published 1748), by Ignace Hugary de Lamache-Courmont, bears an approbation dated 14 September 1759 but was first published in 1752.

(THEATRE). LE SAGE, Alain René, Louis FUZELIER and Jacques-Philippe d’ORNEVAL. : Le Théatre De La Foire, Ou, L’opéra Comique, Contenant Les Meilleures Piéces Qui Ont Été Représentées Aux Foires De S. Germain Et De S. Laurent. Enrichies D’estampes En Taille Douce, Avec Une Table De Tous Les Vaudevilles & Autres Airs Gravez-notez Á La Fin De Chaque Volume.

A celebrated illustrated collection of comic plays performed by the so-called Théâtre de La Foire at the annual spring fairs at Saint-Germain and Saint-Laurent. The delightful plates are mainly after Robert François Bonnart and each volume contains accompanying engraved music (on a total of 637 pages).

‘From the end of the 16th century it was customary for strolling players to erect their booths at the fairs held in Paris ... Here they presented comic dialogues, which gradually devel...

GENLIS, Stéphanie Félicité Brulart, comtesse de. : De L’influence Des Femmes Sur La Littérature Française, Comme Protectrices Des Lettres Et Comme Auteurs, Ou Précis De L’histoire Des Femmes Françaises Les Plus Célèbres.

First edition. A pioneering bio-bibliographical survey of French female authors from the Middle Ages to Mme. Genlis’ own time, arguing throughout for the right of women to write for publication.

RICCOBONI, Mairie-Jeanne. : Collection Complète Des Oeuvres De Madame Riccoboni. Nouvelle Édition Revue & Augmentée.

Madame Riccoboni, née Laboras de Mézières, had acted with the Comédie Italienne prior to beginning her writing career with an extension and imitation of Marivaux’s Vie de Marianne (1751), followed by her first novel, an imitation of Richardson, Lettres de Mistriss Fanni Butlerd (1756). In addition to her several novels, she made translations of English novels, including Fielding’s Amelia (1762) and plays by Garrick and Colman (all present here). She was well regarded by Voltaire and was part of...

MILTON, John. : Le Paradis Perdu De Milton, Poëme Héroique, Traduit De L’anglais, Avec Les Remarques De M. Addison. Nouvelle Edition, Revûë & Corrigée [le Paradis Reconquis], Traduit De L’anglois De Milton, Par Le P. De Mareüil De La Compagnie De Jesus. Avec Six Lettres Critiques Sur Le Paradis Perdu Et Reconquis, Par Le P.r. De La Compagnie De Jesus.

This is the French translation of Paradise Lost by Nicolas-François Dupré de Saint-Maur (1695-1774), first published in 1729 (Amsterdam) to which is added his translation of Paradise Regain’d, first appended to the 1736 edition (Paris), which also contained Routh’s six letters.

[PRÉVOST, Antoine François, Abbé]. : Le Doyen De Killerine. Histoire Morale Composée Sur Les Mémoires D’une Illustre Famille D’irlande; Et Ornée De Tout Ce Qui Peut Rendre Une Lecture Utile & Agréable.

Prévost’s novel Le doyen de Killerine was first published in 1735 and was frequently reprinted. Set in Ireland, it tells the story of the attempts of a worldly Irish priest’s attempts (usually thwarted) to find suitable marriage partners for his siblings. It is full of romantic anguish, especially in dealing with the thorny question of intermarriage between Protestant and Catholic, and was influential in forming the French taste for ‘celtic’ novels which became so prevalent towards the end of t...

TRESSAN, [Louis-Élisabeth de la Vergne de, translator]. ARIOSTO, Ludvico. : Roland Furieux, Poème Héroïque De L’arioste [extrait De Roland L’amoureux De Matheo Maria Boyardo,...]. Nouvelle Traduction

First edition of Tressan’s prose translation of Orlando Furioso (1516) and (in the fifth volume) of his selections from Boiardo’s Orlando innamorato (1498). The latter includes a short life of Ariosto and a version of Galileo’s letter to his friend Rinuccini in praise of Ariosto.

GENLIS, [Stéphanie Félicité Brulart, comtesse de]. : Mademoiselle De La Fayette, Ou, Le Siècle De Louis Xiii ... Deuxième Édition.

Second edition (printed in the same year as the first) of her historical novel on the reign of Louis XIII, who she revered for his piety and whose reputation she sought to rehabilitate in France.

SCOTT, Sir Walter. : Histoire Générale De L’art Dramatique Suivie D’un Essai Littéraire Sur Molière Et Du Poëme Dramatique D’halidon-hill.

First edition in French of Scott’s essay on drama contributed to the supplement of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1815–24 and of his essay on Molière. Appended is a translation of the dramatic poem Halidon Hill which had first appeared in French in 1822. It was issued as a volume of the complete works, though obtainable separately.