L'arretin

The first edition appeared in 1763 at the same address under the title: L'arretin, ou la débauche de l'esprit en fait de bon sens.
Contemporary full citron morocco binding. Smooth spine decorated. Green morocco title-label. Triple fillet frame on covers. Edges gilt. Handsome copy. Upper joint lightly rubbed.
L'arretin consists of 25 essays and tales on subjects as diverse as Les nègres, L'agriculture, La chasteté ou le célibat, Histoire de maître Pierre, etc. These are all violent critiques, sometimes direct, sometimes satirical or allegorical, of Biblical teaching, the church, and its history. Abbé Du Laurens (1719-1793) was a polemical and anti-religious writer whose works are all libertine and licentious, but above all, profoundly anti-religious. The author did not hesitate to descend to the lowest trivialities to support his critique, but his comic inventions, often astonishing, earned him praise. Pursued for his books, he took refuge in Holland, then was imprisoned in Mainz in 1767, to end his days at 74 in a convent.
'This book is a lively and rather ribald critique of the principal stories of the Bible... L'epouse de Suze is a critique of La nouvelle Heloïse. Le sage Pangloss is Solomon, the wisest of men, it is an original chapter, even through its singular biblical citations. L'histoire de Suzon is that of Susanna and the two elders, l'histoire de Godemiché... The origin of these instruments of chamois or velvet that became so common in convents. Finally les Couvens de Jésuites is an allegory of the history of Sodom. In a word, the entire volume is rather a facetious critique of the Bible and clerical institutions than a simply ribald book'. Gay/Lemonnyer I, 263-264.