ou Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de D. Girard, et de Mademoiselle Cadière.
Londres [but Paris], 1791
Extremely rare edition of this eighteenth century best seller, with twenty explicit mezzotint plates. A lovely example in a contemporary binding.
For a small format book of such provocative nature it is highly unusual to have illustrations in mezzotint, a technique reserved mostly for large illustrated works. Mezzotint plates wear off quickly, meaning that only a couple of hundred copies of this edition was published. With some minor changes in details, the illustrations follow the Cazin edition published in 1785, plates for which were line-engraved.
No copy of this rare edition is referenced in international collections; no copies in WorldCat.
First published in 1748 and immediately forbidden and destroyed, 'Therese philosophe' became one of the most famous and recognised erotic novels. An anticlerical work, it is based on a case brought by the 18-year old Marie Catherine Cadiere against her Jesuit confessor Jean-Baptiste Girard in 1730-31 and which passionated the France of the Enlightenment. It is so well written that it has been also attributed to Diderot, the editor of the Encyclopédie.
The Marquis de Sade confirmed the attribution to Boyer d'Argens and praised the work: 'ouvrage charmant du marquis d'Argens, le seul qui ait montre le but, sans neanmoins l'atteindre tout a fait; l'unique qui ait agreablement lié la luxure a l'impiété, et qui donnera enfin l'idée d'un livre immoral'.
The last five pages of the edition are occupied by a poem titled "Jouissance" (pp. 199-202).
Two volumes bound in one, small 12mo (14 x 8.7 cm). 203 pp., including title and a notice to the bookbinder, with 20 mezzotint plates engraved after Borel; a few pages very lightly printed. Contemporary full calf, spine richly gilt with red and black morocco labels titled in gilt; small repairs to spine.
For a small format book of such provocative nature it is highly unusual to have illustrations in mezzotint, a technique reserved mostly for large illustrated works. Mezzotint plates wear off quickly, meaning that only a couple of hundred copies of this edition was published. With some minor changes in details, the illustrations follow the Cazin edition published in 1785, plates for which were line-engraved.
No copy of this rare edition is referenced in international collections; no copies in WorldCat.
First published in 1748 and immediately forbidden and destroyed, 'Therese philosophe' became one of the most famous and recognised erotic novels. An anticlerical work, it is based on a case brought by the 18-year old Marie Catherine Cadiere against her Jesuit confessor Jean-Baptiste Girard in 1730-31 and which passionated the France of the Enlightenment. It is so well written that it has been also attributed to Diderot, the editor of the Encyclopédie.
The Marquis de Sade confirmed the attribution to Boyer d'Argens and praised the work: 'ouvrage charmant du marquis d'Argens, le seul qui ait montre le but, sans neanmoins l'atteindre tout a fait; l'unique qui ait agreablement lié la luxure a l'impiété, et qui donnera enfin l'idée d'un livre immoral'.
The last five pages of the edition are occupied by a poem titled "Jouissance" (pp. 199-202).
Two volumes bound in one, small 12mo (14 x 8.7 cm). 203 pp., including title and a notice to the bookbinder, with 20 mezzotint plates engraved after Borel; a few pages very lightly printed. Contemporary full calf, spine richly gilt with red and black morocco labels titled in gilt; small repairs to spine.
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