[Rarebooks] fa: THE FRENCH IMPOSTORS: EXTRAORDINARY CRIMINAL CASES (Martin Guerre &c.) - 1737

[ArCh]

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https://tinyurl.com/5n75n6u7

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


[Anonymous:] The French Impostors: or, An Historical Account of some very Extraordinary Criminal Cases, brought before the Parliament of France, several of which are so very surprizing, that they for a long Time puzzled the whole Senate... London: Printed by J. Applebee, for J. Hazard, J. Brindley, J. Worrall [et al], MDCCXXXVII [1737]. First edition thus. Small 8vo (17 cm) in modern calf-backed marbled boards, gilt-lettered morocco spine label. Table of contents mistakenly bound in after the preface, two leaves of adverts misbound into the prefatory material, but complete as per ESTC, including 9 pp. of publisher's adverts. ESTC N6568.

Very uncommon: ESTC records only one copy in the UK (Cambridge) and five in the U.S. (Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, National Library of Medicine). A reissue of Gallick Reports, published the same year. A collection of remarkable, tragic, and/or bizarre French criminal cases, preceded by a 46-page commentary on French law by the anonymous author. One of the cases is that of "Arnold du Tilh, an Impostor, who artfully deceived a Man's Wife and Relations," i.e., the story of Martin Guerre, the inspiration for the 1941 novel by Janet Lewis, the 1982 film starring Gerard Depardieu, and the 1993 Americanized version, "Sommersby," starring Richard Gere and Jodie Foster. Other cases include: Memoirs of the famous Madam de Brinvilliers who poisoned her father and two brothers and attempted the life of her sister; The misfortunes of the Sieur d'Anglade, condemned (tho' innocent) to the gallies and who died before his innocence was discovered; the celebrated History of Urbain Grandier, condemn'd as a Magician; etc.

Contents toned with occasional heavier browning, a few small spots and stains, one page-gathering a bit "proud" (protruding from the rest of the text block), one leaf (pp. 21-22) torn at the bottom corner with the loss of a few words, else generally clean and sound, firmly bound in a fresh and appealing modern binding.