La belle alsacienne ou telle mère telle fille

First edition under this title and the most accomplished definitive version of this licentious story attributed to Antoine Bret (and previously to Claude Villaret), whose first version appeared in Amsterdam in 1745 under the title Galanteries de Thérèse.
Half red shagreen binding, spine with four raised bands set with gilt dotwork and decorated with gilt compartments, red pasteboard boards with black stains, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.
Rare work illustrated with 2 frontispiece engravings.

A delightful little libertine novel, supposedly autobiographical, of a young courtesan who recounts her apprenticeship in the profession by her mother and, naturally, her flourishing. But the particularity of the work is to maintain confusion between titillating fiction and supposedly authentic narrative. The preface itself is signed by the presumed authoress, who justifies the presence of her portrait as frontispiece, through argumentation of pure misogyny: "The essential thing about a woman is beauty; wit and virtues are only accessory qualities; the first does not always give as much pleasure as it seems to promise, the second, however respectable and boring, rather resembles those curiosities which, being of no use in the commerce of life, are good at most for display."
Republished in the bibliophile's collection at the end of the century, the novel was preceded by an erudite preface, revealing the true author and analyzing the secular success of this work:
"Even its morality is quite indicative. Thérèse does not display profound, disappointing, or even merely troublesome philosophy, but she knows how to find picturesque, colorful, rapid traits of observation; she abounds in practical reflections that are wisely practical. And finally she recommends herself above all by a good heart, one of those kindnesses that facilitate life, and more particularly gallant life. All these qualities suffice to make the reading of these short memoirs both endearing and attractive, which truly depict, without great rhetoric, the rapid stages of existence of a girl who has of herself devoted herself to giving pleasure, sparing neither her body nor her heart."