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140
-
An interesting copy with numerous markings
See original version (French)
140
-
An interesting copy with numerous markings
See original version (French)
Estimate €300 - €500
Voluntary lot
Description
An interesting copy with numerous markings
Alexandre DUMAS the Younger. *The Lady of the Camellias*. Preface by Jules Janin. New, previously unpublished preface by the author. Illustrations by A. Lynch. Paris, Maison Quantin, 1887.
Quarto, blue half-morocco with corner pieces, gilt fillets on the covers, plain spine slightly faded with a mosaic floral design, gilt head, covers and spine preserved, upper joint cracked at the top, scattered foxing (Stroobants binding).
[2 ff.], XIV, 247 pp., colour frontispiece reproduced on the cover, 10 black-and-white engravings as inserts, monochrome chapter headings, by A. Lynch.
This copy is enriched with:
- 11 illustrations by De Neuville taken from an 1875 edition.
- 10 engravings by Los Rios
- 2 portraits of Alexandre Dumas
- A portrait of Marie Duplessis in two versions, one of which is in red chalk.
- The Quartiers de la Dame aux Camélias, by Lynch in two versions, one of which is in red chalk.
- 2 portraits of Jules Janin.
- Ex-libris by Eugène Jacob.
- Frontispiece in three states.
- Title page: the series of engravings by De Neuville, drawn by him.
Dumas the Younger’s novel had – and still has – such a profound impact that the personality of the courtesan Marie Duplessis (1824–1847), her life and her death, have become conflated with the literary character created by the novelist.
Dumas fils had been her lover in 1844–1845 but had been forced to end their relationship as he was unable to maintain the standard of living to which she was accustomed. She died of tuberculosis on 3 February 1847. Dumas Fils, who was in Algeria, only learnt of her death upon his return to France and was only able to attend the auction of the young woman’s possessions; she had died heavily in debt.
It is with this auction that the novel begins. The narrator buys a copy of *Manon Lescaut* there, a gift to the courtesan from a certain Armand Duval, whom he will later meet and who will recount his love affair with the young woman to him.
*Manon Lescaut* is the central theme of *The Lady of the Camellias*, and references to Abbé Prévost’s novel punctuate that of Dumas fils, who asserts: ‘*Manon Lescaut* is quite certainly the most beautiful book of the heart ever written […]. It is true in the past, in the present and in the future, and her conversion through love is as beautiful as Mary Magdalene’s conversion through faith.’
In May 1847, after rereading the letters Marie had sent him, Dumas wrote the novel in three weeks, in which he redeemed the woman of ill repute and criticised the vices of bourgeois and aristocratic society. The novel was an immediate and resounding success.
A fine copy of this bestseller about the redemption of a courtesan through love.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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