L'âne mort et la femme guillotinée

First edition, rare, illustrated with 2 title vignettes and one figure.
Contemporary half glazed hazel calf binding. Spine with false raised bands decorated with 3 complex blind tooled ornaments, with roulettes on the bands and at head and tail. Title and date labels in black calf. Marbled edges. Blind roulette on boards. Traces of rubbing, notably on boards. Scattered foxing. Fine copy.
Literary curiosity at the crossroads of several influences, that of the English Gothic novel, of the emerging romantic tale flirting with the fantastic and the pathetic, and parody of Victor Hugo's Last Day of a Condemned Man which had just appeared. The novelist closest to this narrative is undoubtedly Jacques Cazotte, but a Cazotte here tinged with romanticism. Talented and promising work by a young author who, apart from a few tales, would exercise himself only in journalism thereafter. The work enjoyed certain success and was republished several times, notably in a large format version illustrated by Johannot more than a decade later.