Oeuvres complètes de Rivarol

The rare first collected edition, with a frontispiece portrait. This edition contains most of Rivarol's writings and notably numerous short pieces, but it is not entirely complete; certain royalist or monarchist writings were not retained in this edition under the Empire. At the beginning of the fifth volume, a letter from Madame Rivarol thanking the publisher for having removed the calumnious and mendacious notice from volume I. This notice, indeed, has been removed from numerous volumes.

Contemporary bindings in full marbled brown sheep. Spines decorated with 5 different small fleurons. Dark brown calf title and volume labels. Headcaps torn away, except at foot of volume I. Set heavily rubbed with some lacks to spines. Joints of volume I cracked at head and foot. Upper joint of volume 5 cracked. All corners bumped. 

A controversial figure in Parisian salons for his great facility of speech and his striking repartee, Rivarol, of modest extraction, passed himself off as noble; he was at once a political journalist, critic, writer and lexicographer and linguist; his work on language is particularly remarkable. This edition contains a biographical notice by Fayolle and Chênedollé, the Prospectus for a new dictionary of the French language, On intellectual and moral man - On the nature of language and the origin of speech; On the universality of the French language; Letters to M. Necker; various pieces and critiques, notably a review of The influence of passions by Madame de Staël; the translation adaptation of Dante's Inferno; Extracts from the political and national journal; Thoughts, traits and various witticisms as well as diverse pieces.