LE NORMAND, Marie-Anne Adélaïde. ~ Arrêt suprême des dieux de l’Olympe en faveur de Mme. la Duchesse de Berry et de son fils. L’Ombre du Prince de Bourbon Condé (Louis-Henri-Joseph), à son filleul le duc d’Aumale d’Orléans (Henri Eugène-Philippe-Louis). Révélations, etc. Paris: [Dondey-Dupré for] Mlle Le Normand, 28 February, 1833.
8vo (220 × 135 mm), pp. [4], 144, lithograph frontispiece. Uncut in original printed wraps. Old waterstain lightly affecting the frontispiece. Old bookseller’s label inside front cover. Wrapper slightly frayed, but a good copy.
First edition of the last book by a prolific French clairvoyant — in the form of a decree from the gods of Mount Olympus, this is a spirited plea in favour of the Duchesse de Berry then imprisoned for leading a rebellion against Charles X after the July Revolution. Like Le Normand’s other works it is couched in terms of dreams, predictions and angelic interventions. It bears her signature on the back of the half-title as a measure against piracy and the frontispiece shows her taking the Duchesse’s hand in prison, as an angel swoops down to crown her.
Marie-Anne Le Normand (1772–1843) was a celebrated (or notorious) clairvoyant, publisher, booskeller and self-publicist Famed throughout Europe for her exclusive clientele, she popularised cartomancy and spawned an enormous wave of imitators. At the height of her career she claimed to have advised the likes of Robespierre, Talleyrand, Metternich, the Empress Josephine and Emperor Alexander himself; others argued that the whole thing was a sham, and she was frequently arrested, spending several weeks in prison.