Les avantures de Telemaque fils d'Ulysse

First complete edition.

It is illustrated with two frontispieces, twenty-four full-page engravings, and a folding map of Telemachus's travels. The portrait of Fénelon serving as frontispiece to the first volume is signed Baillieul and Duflos; the second frontispiece, together with the plates, is signed Bonnart fils and Giffart, while the map is drawn by Rousset and engraved by Berey. A few head-pieces, bandeaux, and ornamental initials. 

Bindings in full red morocco signed Chambolle-Duru, richly decorated covers, spine with five raised bands ruled in gilt, gilt panels and fleurons between the bands, author, title, volume number, place and date lettered in gilt on the spines, doublures in Prussian-blue morocco, gilt borders, combed marbled paper endpapers, gilt edges, slipcase. A few instances of light foxing and soiling to the leaves.

Signed autograph note and stamps of Gustave Mouravit (1840-1920).

Long read as a critique of the power of Louis XIV, the work was already regarded as a satirical allegory of the reign even before its printed publication, several manuscript copies having circulated among courtiers as early as the autumn of 1698. This political reading owes much to the context of its publication: Fénelon had just been condemned in Rome, on 12 March 1699, at the end of a long theological controversy with Bossuet over the question of pure, disinterested love of God, and was then in disgrace and exiled to Cambrai. A more neutral reading might instead see it as a classic of pedagogical literature: originally conceived for the education of the Duke of Burgundy, grandson of Louis XIV and Fénelon's pupil, Telemachus conveys, through the journey of Ulysses's son inspired by the Odyssey, an art of governance and a message of universal significance.

Victim of an uncontrollable success, the work was first printed without the author's consent in 1699; copies were withdrawn from sale and the privilege granted to the publisher was revoked, though this did not prevent the rapid spread of the text. In great demand, the work was subject to several piracies, notably by the Dutch publisher Adrian Moetjens, before being officially published in 1717 under the direction of the Marquis de Fénelon, the author's great-nephew. Based on the original manuscript recovered after Fénelon's death, this richly illustrated edition offers a corrected and completed text.

First edition in accordance with Fénelon's manuscript, here richly bound in red morocco.