MASSON, Michel et Auguste LUCHET. ~ Thadéus le Ressuscité. Brussels: Adolphe Wahlen, 1833.
2 vols, 12mo (160 × 100 mm), pp. [4], 358, [2]; [4], 368, [2], half-titles, printed throughout on bright green paper. Contemporary red half calf, spines gilt, black morocco labels. Rubbed, joints cracked but secure. A good copy.
A rare Brussels piracy of a popular gothic and melodramatic novel, printed entirely on bright green paper. The book had first appeared in Paris the same year and seems to have been swiftly pirated by more than one Belgian printer. WorldCat locates no other copy with this Wahlens imprint, and thus probably no other copy on this striking paper. While green paper used in wrappers and bindings is widely recorded in this period (as well as the more common emerald green cloth used in ‘poison’ bindings) the use of a complete stock of green paper for the text block is rare. It remains to be determined whether such stocks are arsenical or coloured with heavy metal derivatives. Now wash your hands.
Thadéus le Ressuscité was a collaborative novel between Masson and Luchet, telling the story of a man condemned to death during the Terror who survived to encounter his accusers and betrayers in the post-Revolutionary period. It combines gothic melodrama with historical morality and allegory.