Mademoiselle de Clermont

First edition, rare. As the foreword recalls, this short story by Madame de Genlis had originally appeared in the Bibliothèque des romans, volume V.

Contemporary full brown grained sheep binding. Smooth spine with 4 dots and fillets. Black calf title-label. One tear with small loss to upper cover. One corner slightly bumped. Fine copy, fresh. At end: Work by Madame de Genlis sold by the same bookseller.
The forgotten masterpiece of the Comtesse de Genlis, a short story with classical writing that responds so well to the writing precept she established: "clarity, naturalness, purity, elegance are the indispensable marks of good style", and to her conception of the short story: "in this last work everything must move toward the goal with rapidity, or everything must relate to it." Mademoiselle de Clermont recounts the authentic passion of young Marie-Anne de Bourbon-Condé, princess of the blood, for a duke whom her social rank forbids her to marry. In this true story reported to the author, no facility such as love at first sight, the outpouring of amorous language. The short story is brief, effective, stripped of all artifice. "Mme de Genlis the narrator constructs narrative structures where, through a subtle interplay between the time of telling and the time of what is told, narration in the past and commentary in the present succeed each other; frame narrative and embedded narrative. Amel ben Amor, Doctoral thesis in French Languages and Literatures." 18th Century Literature