Charles SOREL

New edition, after the original of 1623. This edition is illustrated with 2 charming frontispieces and 11 unsigned figures. Each of the figures has an upper and lower part, as if they were two vignettes. All the illustrations have fine contrast and have been perfectly printed. This edition by the Hackes is part of the Elsevier collection. "The most attractive and most sought-after edition". Brunet III, 1931.
Later bindings (mid-19th century) in full green morocco, signed C. Hardy. Spine with five raised bands decorated with blind compartments. Double blind fillet on boards. Gilt decorative board-edges framing the pastedowns. All edges gilt. Spine slightly faded, otherwise handsome copy.
The attribution of this picturesque and picaresque novel on the customs of Paris under Louis XIII is long-standing, but Sorel himself disavowed the work. Brunet thinks that the novel originally had only seven parts, and that given its success, Sorel would have extended it with 5 new parts. However, the work is still currently attributed to Charles Sorel, who would himself have expurgated its obscenities by adding moral developments, for fear of censorship and lawsuits. The work forms one of the first and most important comic histories of French literature. The novel conducts several levels of narrative and is quite complex, heralding a genre that would have a strong influence on the 18th century: the episodic novel.

New edition, after the original of 1623. This edition is illustrated with 2 charming frontispieces and 11 unsigned figures. Each of the figures has an upper and lower part, as if they were two vignettes. All illustrations have beautiful contrast and have been perfectly printed. This edition of the Hackes is part of the Elsevier collection. "The most beautiful and most sought-after edition". Brunet III, 1931.
Full fawn morocco binding. Spine with raised bands decorated with date at foot. Blind-ruled frieze border on boards and double fillet border. Decorative gilt board-edges. Edges gilt. Handsome copy, in excellent interior and exterior condition. Unsigned master binding.
The attribution of this picturesque and picaresque novel about Parisian customs under Louis XIII is old, but Sorel himself disavowed the work. Brunet believes that the novel originally had only seven parts, and that given its success, Sorel would have extended it with 5 new parts. However the work is still currently attributed to Charles Sorel, who would have expurgated its obscenities himself by adding moral developments, for fear of censorship and lawsuits. The work forms one of the first and most important comic histories of French literature. The novel carries several levels of narrative and is quite complex, announcing a genre that would have a strong influence on the 18th century: the episodic novel.
Manuscript ex libris of the famous bookseller and collector Jules Bobin, with a date: 1865.

First edition. Rare. One copy at the university library of Tours, absent from the BN de France and the British Library, one copy in Edinburgh. Brunet does not cite this book among the works of Sorel.
Contemporary full speckled brown sheep. Decorated spine with raised bands. Headcaps worn, upper joint cracked one-third down, corners slightly bumped. Attributed to Sorel by Barbier in the dictionary of anonymous works, the book treats an uncommon subject and a very free manner of making money in all trades and disciplines, from artisans to bankers and men of letters, the work extends its reflection to less official means such as court favors, inheritances. The whole constitutes an economic and moral portrait of 17th-century society quite interesting, and perhaps for the first time, considers money as a good destined to do good.