Le parnasse contemporain, recueil de vers nouveaux, complet de la première, seconde et troisième séries

First edition of Le Parnasse contemporain, a rare complete set of all three series, published in 1866, 1869-1871 and 1876, featuring works by some one hundred poets, most of them previously unpublished.

The first series includes the first printing of several poems from Charles Baudelaire's Nouvelles fleurs du mal, in the fifth instalment, which is devoted entirely to him: Epigraphe pour un livre condamné - Madrigal triste - L'avertisseur - Le rebelle - Bien loin d'ici - Recueillement - Le gouffre - Les plaintes d'un Icare, together with some of the poems published in the Epaves.
The set also contains the earliest works of Stéphane Mallarmé: "Les fenêtres - Le sonneur - A celle qui est tranquille - Vere novo - L'azur - Les Fleurs - Soupir - A un pauvre", and of Paul Verlaine, who had not yet published a single volume at the time: "Vers dorés - Dans les bois - Il bacio - Cauchemar - Sub urbe - Marine - Mon rêve familier".
The volumes further include contributions by Théodore de Banville, Théophile Gautier, José-Maria de Heredia, Leconte de Lisle, Anatole France, Louise Colet, Louis Ménard, Catulle Mendès, Auguste Villiers de l'Isle Adam, Charles Cros, Louisa Siefert, Léon Dierx... 
Bound in havana half shagreen, spines very slightly faded, decorated with double gilt fillets and blind fillets, chocolate-brown shagreen title labels, cat's-eye paper boards, hand-marbled endpapers and pastedowns; original wrappers preserved for the first and third volumes, somewhat soiled, with restored corners.

Some minor scattered foxing.
A very rare complete set in uniform bindings.