First edition with these plates, number 77 of 85 copies (’planches détruite’), subscriber’s name ‘Ed.more...
de la Germanière’ added in manuscript. Le Bonheur dans le crime was the third of Barbey d’Aubervilly six novelettes (1871) gathered under the collective title Les Diaboliques (1874) in which Madameoiselle Hauteclaire Stassin, a ravishing beauty, expert in fencing falls in love with a count; the two hatch a plan to murder the count’s wife, whereafter they live happily ever after, without guilt. The edition includes a curious facsimile of an autograph letter by the author on his ‘Never More’ headed paper beginning: ‘A qui relié mon livre et lié mon coeur.’.see full details
