Mercure de France, n°186 à n°189, tome LIV, année 1905

First edition.
Full soft gray mouse-colored boards, original wrappers preserved, contemporary binding.
Contributions by P. Léautaud "Marcel Schwob", E. Dujardin "Le Sentiment religieux, son apparition dans le judaïsme", A. Retté "Gérard de Nerval", F. Caussy "Esthétique de la statuaire expressive", Péladan "La Clé de Rabelais", H.-D. Davray "La Jeune Irlande", E. Gaubert "Jean Lorrain", L. Séché "L'Elvire de Lamartine", M.-A. Leblond "Une Métropole africaine", G. Deledda "Les Tentations", H. de Régnier "Hugues Rebell", E. Magne "Scarron et la fronde", C. Morice "Le XXIè Salon des Indépendants", R. de Gourmont, Rachilde, A.-Ferdinand Hérold.
Handsome interior condition.
The 'Mercure de France' originally was a French periodical, founded in the 17th century under the name 'Mercure Galant', which would evolve to become, in the 20th century, a publishing house.
Under the impetus of Rémy de Gourmont and Alfred Jarry, a literary review adopted the name 'Mercure de France' in 1890 and published symbolist texts, notably by Jean Moréas, Ernest Raynaud, Jules Renard, Louis Dumur. Gradually gaining recognition, this review would publish both the greatest Parnassians (Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Mallarmé, Heredia, etc.) as well as witness the emergence of Jarry's Pataphysics.
The publishing house was born in its wake. It notably published the first works of Gide and Claudel, of Colette, of Apollinaire, of Georges Duhamel?