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2 vols., 12mo (158 × 91 mm.), pp. [vi], 298; [vi], 264. Titles printed in red and black, woodcut ornaments. Very slight offset/browning to lower fore-margin of a few leaves at opening of vol. 1. Contemporary polished calf, spines with 5 raised bands, gilt, red morocco lettering and numbering pieces. Minor expert repair to foot of both spines. Minute nineteenth-century ownership inscriptions (?Gaultier Passerat) to verso of titles. A very nice copy.
A celebrated novel of comic transformation, Le Sopha tells of an unfortunate young courtier, who for the sake of former sins is transformed into a piece of furniture, the ‘sofa’ of the title. He is not to be reincarnated as a man until a man and a woman sincerely in love with each other had consummated their passion on him. It apparently secured Crébillon’s temporary banishment from Paris (its characters were rather closely based on prominent society members) but became hugely popular and was translated into English by Eliza Haywood and William Hatchett. Dufrenoy saw it as a key work in the development of the oriental genre in the French novel, and certainly it spawned a host of imitations. While Tchemerzine and Cioranescu list a previous edition of the same year under the name Le Sopha couleur de roze, Tchemerzine states that he has never seen a copy. Worldcat now lists a handful, though we have been unable to discern on what basis it is given primacy over our issue.
Darnton, Corpus of Clandestine Literature in France, 1769-1789, 651 (our issue); Weil, Livres interdits, livres persécutés: 1720-1770 (1998), 169 (our issue, numerous seizures across France in the 1740s); cf. Cioranescu 21744; Dufrenoy, L’Orient Romanesque en France 1704-1789, 151; Gay III 1135; Tchemerzine IV, 193b.
£800.00
(equal to approx. US$1265.34* or €991.57* for 19 May 2012)
* Dollar and Euro prices are given as a guideline only. The actual exchange rate may vary according to your payment option.
