Oeuvres complètes

First collected edition containing some unpublished works. An etched portrait by Commanville. Definitive edition based on the manuscripts of Mme Commanville, Flaubert's niece to whom he had bequeathed his manuscripts. Printed on fine laid paper. La tentation de Saint Antoine is printed on strong laid paper, thicker. One black stain at foot of volume 8, another smaller one on spine of volume 4. This edition is printed on much better paper than the editions published by Henri May, with whom the publishing privilege was shared; it is dated 1885 whereas May's printings contain no date.
Contemporary half navy blue shagreen bindings with corners. Jansenist spine with raised bands. Spines uniformly browned. Author, title and volume number gilt. Separation fillets on covers. Traces of rubbing.
Besides the works that had already been published and one volume for the theatre, this edition contains the study on Flaubert by Maupassant placed before Bouvard et Pécuchet and some unpublished works after the Mélanges: Par les champs et par les grèves, La danse des morts, Novembre, Rabelais (a youthful study), Smarh, A bord de la Cange (fragments from a journey to the Orient). Gustave Flaubert died in 1880.