Premium Leducq Maison de Ventes aux enchères
14
-
Alex. DUMAS. Complete Works. Plays.
See original version (French)
14
-
Alex. DUMAS. Complete Works. Plays.
See original version (French)
Estimate €300 - €500
Voluntary lot
Description
Alex. DUMAS. Complete Works. Plays. Paris, Charpentier, 1834–1836.
6 volumes in-8, in contemporary havana half-calf, with decorated raised bands on the spine.
First collected edition of Dumas’s plays. It comprises:
Vol. I: Henri III, Antony
Vol. II: Christine, Charles VII
Vol. III: Térésa, Richard Darlington
Vol. IV: La Tour de Nesle, Angèle
Vol. V: Catherine Howard, Napoleon
Vol. VI: Don Juan de Marana, Kean.
First edition of the lengthy introductory essay ‘How I Became a Playwright’.
At the time, the theatre was the noble genre, and a writer wishing to achieve fame and fortune had to succeed in it. One can understand the determination with which Dumas strove, at the start of his career, to have his plays staged. Travelogues and novels would come only later.
It should be noted that in this edition Dumas claims authorship of *La Tour de Nesle* ‘in collaboration with Mr F. Gaillardet’, and that *Don Juan de Marana* is reclassified from a ‘mystery’ to a ‘drama’.
Vicaire III, 435–436; Talvart, p. 42; Carteret, 243: ‘A very rare edition’; Munro, 361.
The spine and four endpapers are rubbed (with small tears at the top), three endpapers are torn off, and there are foxing spots.
The early plays of the formidable playwright Dumas. A very rare edition, particularly in a Romantic-style binding.
From the library of Jean Meyer, bearing his bookplate.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
You may also like