Lettres a Madame la Marquise *** sur le sujet de la Princesse de Cleves

First edition, rare.
Full glazed blonde calf 18th-century binding. Spine with raised bands richly decorated. Red morocco title label. Split at head of upper joint. Two corners bumped. Light rubbing. Owner's name crossed out on title page. Old pen note on endpaper. Handsome copy, well bound.
These Letters appear shortly after the first edition of La Princesse de Clèves (1678), and they are of crucial importance for the history of Belles-Lettres. Valincourt begins by retracing the history of the work, which was well known before being published. He gives a detailed account of it, following the novel step by step, with the aid of historical and critical considerations. If Valincourt's work is rather laborious, paraphrasing the novel with the aid of a realist postulate and questioning the psychological, stylistic and narrative possibilities, it nonetheless remains that we have few documents of this kind: a contemporary testimony on an emblematic book of French literature.