SADE (Donatien Alphonse François de). Les Crimes de l'amour, - Lot 28

SADE (Donatien Alphonse François de). Les Crimes de l'amour, nouvelles héroïques et tragiques ; précédés d'une idée sur les romans. Paris, Massé, an VIII (1800). 4 volumes in-12°, red half-maroquin with corners, ribbed spine decorated with gilt fleurons, gilt edges (Niédrée). FIRST EDITION. Four unsigned intaglio frontispieces, here in an avant la lettre edition. This is a collection of short stories in which Love always appears as the first and major cause of the crimes that stain the earth; these short stories are preceded by an "Idée sur les romans" in which Sade defends himself from being the author of the libertine works attributed to him, and paints a very personal picture of the history of the novel from Antiquity to his contemporaries. In between comments on Voltaire, Rousseau, Crébillon, Madame de La Fayette, Richardson, Marivaux, Scarron, Abbé Prévost and Restif de la Bretonne, this little treatise, peppered with advice for young writers, answers a number of questions on the origin and meaning of the novel, and shows why it should depict vice in order to teach readers virtue. Gay I, 760; Cohen. 530-31; Apollinaire p. 59.