Aventures de Roderick Random, traduites de l'anglois de Fielding

Rare French first edition, illustrated with 3 frontispieces by Eisen engraved by Pinssio.
Contemporary full brown calf, marbled and glazed. Red morocco title label, beige morocco volume label. Head of volume I torn away. Joints of volume I narrowly split at head and tail. Rubbing. Title pages browned, as well as some pages. Good copy.
The novel appeared in England in 1748 unsigned, Smollet assumed authorship once success was achieved. This picaresque novel declared a model, which it followed and transgressed, that of Gil Blas by Lesage, which according to Smollet lacks psychology and a tighter narrative linking events together. The work quickly achieved success and was finally translated into France in 1761 under Fielding's name, who was at the height of his success in France; one should not be surprised, for commercial reasons, to find his name attached to the work, especially since the translator did not know the true name of the author. This is one of the greatest English novels of the 18th century in which the hero, in a picaresque and sometimes burlesque vein, tries all conditions to achieve a condition, that of gentleman: in turn sailor on all seas, soldier in France, fortune hunter, the vicissitudes of existence dear to the English novel (Robinson Crusoe, Tom Jones) allow the author a severe critique of the society of his time. In a skillful balance, Smollet manages to transgress and blend all the literary genres of his era: travel narrative, autobiography, sentimental novel, critique of morals, satire of society, denunciation of hypocrisy, prostitution of bodies and minds, etc. One could not finish detailing the richness of the book.