[Rarebooks] fa: L'HOMME GRIS ou PETITE CHRONIQUE 1817 - Scarce Satirical Review w/ Caricatures

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, November 23. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/lcew2ub

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


[Jacques-Amédée Peret:] L'Homme Gris, ou Petite Chronique. Tome Premier. Paris: chez l'Huillier, Libraire-Éditeur, rue Serpente, no. 16, 1817. FIRST EDITION. Early mottled boards recently rebacked in goatskin, gilt-lettered spine label; 8vo (21 cm); 431, [1] pp.; with three hand-colored folding engraved plates (complete).

The first volume, comprising issues nos. 1-9 (of 15 total), of this short-lived, virulently anti-royalist periodical. According to the publisher's own advertisements for this "ouvrage très piquant," one of every three issues appeared with a caricature ("parait par numéros trois fois par mois, dont un est orné d une caricature"); hence the volume would seem to be complete as to the plates. Very uncommon, if not downright rare: searches of WorldCat, Copac and the European Library find only one listing in the U.S. (at Arizona State, apparently an incomplete copy, and with no mention of any plates), one in the UK (U of Manchester), and only four libraries on the Continent, including the Bibliotheque National.

Satirical in tone, anti-clerical and anti-royalist in viewpoint, L'Homme Gris often took the part of France's "loyal" veterans, now invalided or on half-pay, against self-interested ministers and the corrupt royal court. Its caricatures in particular depicted the clergy and nobility "in the most grotesque attitudes" and its attacks, while carried out with a "certaine verve railleuse," also showed "beaucoup de mauvais goût et de mauvais esprit" (Hattin, Bibliographie Historique et Critique de la Presse Périodique Française). The magazine was declared seditious and quickly shut down after fifteen numbers, and Peret, its primary author, was sentenced to two years imprisonment and fined three thousand francs. A sample of the features and essays included: Nouvelles Diverses, Politiques et Commerciales; Observations Météorologiques; La Soirée Politique; Qu'est-ce qu'un Ultra-Royaliste?; Dialogue entre un Cordonnier et un Soulier sur la Forme; Prémières Campaignes de M. le Marquis de la Vulpilière; Serment d'un ultrà-royaliste; Anecdotes sur Bonaparte; Réclamation des officiers éliminés de la marine; etc.

Bumping to the corners of the boards; plates with a short closed tear to the inner margins, not affecting images; one plate with some red stains and chipping to the fore-edge from having been misfolded; mild toning to the text, a few leaves with light spotting to the margins; otherwise quite clean and sound, firmly bound, the folding plates bright and crisp. A fascinating and lively glimpse into the political and social life of the early Bourbon Restoration.