Jules BARBEY D'AUREVILLY.

Lot 8
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Estimation :
2000 - 3000 EUR
Result without fees
Result : 3 000EUR
Jules BARBEY D'AUREVILLY.
Les Diaboliques. Paris, E. Dentu, 1874. In-12: red half-maroquin à la Bradel with corners, smooth spine decorated throughout, untrimmed, gilt head, cover and spine retained (Carayon). First edition of this collection of six short stories. A first edition copy, with the light grey paper cover bearing the title in a red band, with no mention of the edition. "Put on sale in November 1874 with a preface in which Barbey claimed for a "Christian moralist" the right to paint everything since these stories are true, the book caused a scandal. As with Baudelaire and Flaubert, legal proceedings were initiated. The case was dismissed in January 1875, Barbey having agreed to withdraw his book from sale [...]. He waited until 1882 to give a second edition" (Roger Pierrot). Part of the print run of Les Diaboliques was thus destroyed following the trial that followed its publication: nearly five hundred copies still in the brokers' shop were seized and destroyed. Some of the others were put back on sale with the mention of "second edition" on the cover. A fine copy from the library of Paul Eluard, with bookplate. It is enriched with the suite of ten etchings engraved for the second edition (1882), that is to say nine plates by Félicien Rops and the portrait of the author by Rajon. Slightly shorter cover. (In French in the text, nº 300: "Sur un tirage de 2 200 exemplaires, 480 ont été saisis et détruits."- Graham, Passages d'encre, nº 8.)
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