First printing of the book that established the modern realist novel
Publisher and Year: Paris: Michel Lévy frères, 1857
Edition: First edition, first printing, with the “Senart” misspelling on the dedication page of Vol. 1 (corrected to “Senard” in the second printing) and the requisite textual errors present in both volumes.
Condition and Description: Octavo, rebound in crimson morocco leather and marbled paper boards in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, deckle edges, marbled endpapers, 232 pp. (Vol. 1) and 258 pp. (Vol. 2). Original front and rear wrappers bound-in, but lacking the 36 pp. catalog in Vol. 1, as common. Leather and marbled boards well preserved, with minimal wear and bright gilt stamping. Tight hinges and binding. The two blank preliminary and terminal leaves added by the binder have significantly browned. Wrappers have likewise browned, owing to exposure to these added leaves, and have old tissue repairs to the versos filling in marginal losses. Stamp to the lower margin of the front wrapper of Vol. 1, partially removed. Interior pages fairly bright and with only occasional minor handling marks and imperfections. Bookseller description pasted to one of the added blank leaves at the end of Vol. 2, though oddly for a different copy bound in blue morocco leather. An attractive set.
“She wanted to die, but she also wanted to live in Paris.”
Originally published in French in 1857, Madame Bovary was groundbreaking for establishing the modern realist novel. However, the book was widely deemed immoral, with Gustave Flaubert tried for obscenity in France. Publishers in the English-speaking world refused to issue a translated edition for decades. The earliest appearance in English was issued in America in a small and largely overlooked edition in 1881. The Vizetelly 1886 edition was the first to garner widespread attention in the English-speaking world. The British publisher was infamous for embracing controversial material, and Madame Bovary became one of the primary evidentiary exhibits in the obscenity trials against Henry Vizetelly.
Inventory ID: 249 - 289 - 529
First printing of the book that established the modern realist novel
Publisher and Year: Paris: Michel Lévy frères, 1857
Edition: First edition, first printing, with the “Senart” misspelling on the dedication page of Vol. 1 (corrected to “Senard” in the second printing) and the requisite textual errors present in both volumes.
Condition and Description: Octavo, rebound in crimson morocco leather and marbled paper boards in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, deckle edges, marbled endpapers, 232 pp. (Vol. 1) and 258 pp. (Vol. 2). Original front and rear wrappers bound-in, but lacking the 36 pp. catalog in Vol. 1, as common. Leather and marbled boards well preserved, with minimal wear and bright gilt stamping. Tight hinges and binding. The two blank preliminary and terminal leaves added by the binder have significantly browned. Wrappers have likewise browned, owing to exposure to these added leaves, and have old tissue repairs to the versos filling in marginal losses. Stamp to the lower margin of the front wrapper of Vol. 1, partially removed. Interior pages fairly bright and with only occasional minor handling marks and imperfections. Bookseller description pasted to one of the added blank leaves at the end of Vol. 2, though oddly for a different copy bound in blue morocco leather. An attractive set.
“She wanted to die, but she also wanted to live in Paris.”
Originally published in French in 1857, Madame Bovary was groundbreaking for establishing the modern realist novel. However, the book was widely deemed immoral, with Gustave Flaubert tried for obscenity in France. Publishers in the English-speaking world refused to issue a translated edition for decades. The earliest appearance in English was issued in America in a small and largely overlooked edition in 1881. The Vizetelly 1886 edition was the first to garner widespread attention in the English-speaking world. The British publisher was infamous for embracing controversial material, and Madame Bovary became one of the primary evidentiary exhibits in the obscenity trials against Henry Vizetelly.
Inventory ID: 249 - 289 - 529
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