[Rarebooks] fa: THE WHOLE COMICAL WORKS OF MONS. SCARRON 1727

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

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

http://tinyurl.com/jjxnbro

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


Monsieur [Paul] Scarron; Thomas Brown, Richard Savage: The Whole Comical Works of Mons. Scarron, in Two Volumes. Vol. I. Containing his comical Romance of a Company of Stage-Players. In Three Parts complete. Vol. II. All his Novels and Histories. His select Letters, Characters, &c. A great Part of which never before in English… The Fourth Edition, Revis’d and Corrected. London: Printed for J. and J. Knapton; J. and B. Sprint; R. Robinson; T. Sanders; B. Motte; and A. Ward, 1727. Two volumes, tall 12mo (17 cm), in full period calf; [12], 390 pp.; [4], 344 pp.; extra engraved title-page, three engraved plates, woodcut ornaments and initials. ESTC T128248.

The first volume contains the whole of the Comical Romance (Le Roman Comique), generally considered the chef-d'oeuvre of Paul Scarron (1610-1660), poet, comic dramatist and novelist, and the first husband of the woman who would later become famous as Madame de Maintenon, Louis XIV's "secret" second wife. "This history of a troupe of strolling actors... almost the first French novel... shows real power of painting manners and character, and is singularly vivid." (Encyclopaedia Britannica, eleventh edition).

Bindings rubbed, one board detached, another nearly so; leaves with light toning, some offsetting/browning to the edges of the first and last few leaves from the original binder's glue, a few occasional small spots, otherwise the contents quite clean and sound. An externally rather rough but internally very good copy.