Margot la ravaudeuse, par Mr. de M**. by [FOUGERET DE…

8vo (156 × 95 mm), pp. [4], 160, plus engraved frontispiece by C. F. Fritsch, title printed in red with typographic border and ornaments printed in black, typographic headpiece to p. 1. Title and frontispiece a little dusty and lightly spotted, occasional minor stains elsewhere, first few leaves slightly torn at gutters. Contemporary mottled sheep, gilt panelled spine, label lettered ‘MARG’. Attractive block/sponge printed endpapers. Rubbed, spine worn with crack towards the foot, headcap chipped. Early inscription to prelim, obliterated in ink at an early date. A good unsophisticated copy.

First edition of a rare erotic novel strongly influenced by Cleland’s Fanny Hill. ‘Alongside the marquis d’Argens’s Thérèse philosophe, Margot la ravaudeuse is one of the crown jewels of what was once the ‘Enfer’ section of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It relates the story of an attractive stocking-darner who manages to climb the social ladder and eventually retires to ‘enjoy with a few intimate friends the best that life has to offer’...’ (Sciuto, Review of Margot la ravaudeuse, by Louis-Charles Fougeret de Monbron. French Studies: A Quarterly Review, vol. 70 no. 4, 2016. The imprint is clearly false as to its date (’1800’) but may be accurate in giving ‘Hambourg’ as the place of publication: the engraved frontispiece is by the Hamburg engraver Christian Fritsch.
Fougeret de Monbron spent time in London, and paraphrased Fanny Hill (1749) which he published in French as La Fille de joye in 1751. Margot la ravadeuse as published here in the first years of the 1750s contains a number of obvious borrowings from Cleland in its explicit narrative, but in fact the author had been at work on a version of the novel before Fanny Hill appeared. He was probably writing it in 1748 when he was denounced to the authorities by a clandestine bookseller and arrested. The manuscript was seized and destroyed and had to be rewritten after his release from prison, by which time Fanny Hill was in print. His introduction to Margot reads (English translation):
‘Here at last is Margot la ravadeuse, a novel which General de la Pousse, encouraged by the corporation of harlots and their infamous henchmen would have us believe constitutes a crime against the State. The author, accused of nothing less than having attempted to undermine the authority of religion, the government and the Sovereign, and fearing that his silence was in itself an admission of guilt, he had no choice but to publish the work, leaving the question of guilt or innocence entirely in the hands of the public’ Dutel, I, A-676 (stating 12mo, incorrectly); Gay III, 34; Pia 466; Darnton, Corpus of Candestine Literature in France, 416. Langille, [Introduction to] Margot la Ravaudeuse, MHRA, 2015.