[Rarebooks] fa: MEMOIRES de MONSIEUR D'ARTAGNAN des MOUSQUETAIRES DU ROI - 4 vols. 1704

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, September 10. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/ybfh4kjp

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


[Gatien Courtilz de Sandras:] Memoires de Monsieur d'Artagnan, Capitaine Lieutenant de la premiere Compagnie des Mousquetaires du Roi. Contenant quantite de choses particulieres & secrettes qui se sont passees sous le Regne de Louis le Grand. Amsterdam: Pierre Rouge, MDCCIV [1704]. Four volumes, tall 12mo (15.5 cm), in early/period full calf with gilt-tooled spines, lettered morocco spine labels; [8], 456, [16] pp; 440, [16] pp.;478, [16] pp.; 442, [22] pp.; engraved portrait in vol. I, woodcut decorations and initials.

An early edition of Courtilz de Sandras' extravagantly fictionalized account of the life of Charles Ogier de Batz de Castelmore, comte d'Artagnan, first published in 1700, which in turn was the model for Alexandre Dumas' trio of d'Artagnan "romances," beginning with The Three Musketeers in 1844. Courtiz de Sandras' version, a roisterous precursor of the picaresque tradition, full of misadventures, machinations, intrigue, and derring-do, was published only twenty-seven years after the death of the real d'Artagnan at the siege of Maastricht.

Bindings with modest rubbing and wear, bumping and wear to some of the corners; vol. II has a slightly different calf binding and appears to have come from another set; contents generally very good and firmly bound, with occasional light toning, a few scattered small spots; more pronounced browning and edge-wear to the first leaves of vol. II, which is lacking the front (blank) free-endpaper; early owner's signature ("Dechatillon") to title-page of vol. I .