[Henri Beyle, dit STENDHAL].

Lot 88
Go to lot
Estimation :
3000 - 4000 EUR
Result without fees
Result : 5 000EUR
[Henri Beyle, dit STENDHAL].
De l'amour, by the author of the Histoire de la peinture en Italie and of the Lives of Haydn, Mozart and Metastase. Paris, P. Mongie l'aîné, 1822. 2 volumes in-12: paperback, blue paper cover, printed labels on the spine, entirely untrimmed. In modern red half-maroquin folders, spines decorated, slipcase. First edition, very rare: only 150 copies were printed. First issue, before the reissue at the address of Bohaire, in 1833. The distribution was a huge failure. Two years after it went on sale, the publisher Mongie reported to the author: "I have not sold forty copies of this book, and I can say as I do of the Poésies sacrées de Pompignan: sacred they are because no one touches them." Despite this failure, Stendhal had a predilection for books until the end of his life. Eight days before his death, he composed the preface for the third time. Of his elder's books, Baudelaire had a marked preference for De l'amour: he quotes it several times in his Choix de maximes consolantes sur l'amour. A rare copy preserved in paperback, with printed labels on the spine. The seams have been re-sewn and the covers replaced, reattached, with the original labels on the spines. (Carteret II, p. 346: "It is known that the work appeared under blank covers with the titles, without author's name, that the readers were rare and that the copies almost all passed into the hands of Bohaire, Mongie's successor, who put the book back on sale."- Clouzot, p. 256: "Rare and much sought-after."- Bibliothèque nationale, Stendhal et l'Europe, 1983, no. 182.)
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue