Contes chinois ou les avantures merveilleuses du Mandarin Fum-Hoam

New edition, rare, after the original Parisian edition of 1723, and illustrated with 8 unsigned figures, 4 for each volume. Title pages in red and black. At the end Catalogue des livres qui se trouvent chez Jean Neaulme (32 p.).
Contemporary full marbled brown calf bindings. Raised band spines with ornament. Red morocco title labels, tan morocco volume labels. Tail of volume II partly torn away. Lower joint of volume I split at head. Two lacks to upper board of volume II. Upper joint of volume I cracked at head. Missing one endleaf before title. A good copy.
The title "Oriental Tales" would truly be more accurate to describe this bewildering collection, where the stories are embedded within one another, taking us from one country to another. Thus we find numerous tales about Persia, some about India, others about the kingdom of Canaan (Cochinchina, Laos...). Everything begins with the king of Canaan's desire to send a harem as an offering to the king of China. The reader finds himself in Persia with the ambassador of the king of Canaan and two dervishes, one of whom turns out to be a girl, and the other the king of Georgia. The essential narration is handled by the mandarin Fum-Hoam, but the tales and stories concern Persia and neighboring countries more. The marvelous is not absent from these tales of unbridled invention: one can notably see Fum-Hoam transformed into a flea. Gueullette made a specialty of writing oriental tales and produced several quite important collections that all had lasting success, not only in France, but also in England, Germany, and even Russia. One cannot distinguish what in Gueullette stems from compilation, borrowing or even plagiarism, and what comes from the author's pen. One thing is certain, reading the Arabian Nights translated by Galland (whose first collection appeared in 1704) profoundly marked him and he holds an important place alongside 18th-century tales by Crébillon, Hamilton and others, for whom the Orient was an inexhaustible source of inventions and moral transgressions.