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133 - DESMARETS DE SAINT-SORLIN (Jean). The Visionaries.
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Estimate €300 - €600
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Description
DESMARETS DE SAINT-SORLIN (Jean). The Visionaries. Rare edition of Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin's masterpiece. Paris, sn., 1648. In-12 (120x70mm), full red morocco, spine with 5 nerves, small-ink decorated boxes, covers framed with a triple gilt fillet, gilt edges (Chambolle-Duru). 91pp. Mention of "last edition", printed on laid paper. Notes on the play (source TNP): "Alcidon, a foolish and influential bourgeois, wants to marry off his three daughters. How when the three damsels have little desire to do so? Hespérie, the first, believes that men compete for her beauty; Mélisse, the second, dreams of Alexander the Great; Sestiane is in love with the Comédie. The suitors are not much better! A cowardly matamore, a starving man hoping for an improbable inheritance, a narcissistic poet and a passionate idealist who swoons at the first description of a beautiful woman: the suitors are anti-heroes who compete in ridiculousness. Four cowards, four weirdos, who have visions, hence the magnificent title given to this comedy in 1637". Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin (1595-1676) is one of the great forgotten writers of literary history, unjustly overshadowed by the three great authors Molière-Corneille-Racine. A few decades their senior, he defended the classical codification of the Grand Siècle. A founding member of the Académie-Française, he sought to apply the three-unit rule to comedy in particular. A defender of an incipient style, he nevertheless remained a Baroque.
See original version (French)
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About the sale Prestige sale - Antiquarian and collectible books
Auction location
Auction time 06/15/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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