Madame de La Fayette.
24mo (11.6 x 7.6 cm). 108 pp., plus engraved title-page, frontispiece stipple-engraved portrait of Madame de La Fayette signed by Jean-Louis-Auguste Charlin, and four stipple engravings of scenes from her books, also by Charlin; [18] pp. at end comprising engraved “Souvenir” title-page (with imprint of Le Fuel at bottom), 12 pages of engraved vignettes for each month of the year (unsigned, printed recto and verso), and two almanac pages for 1814 for January, February, November and December only, including saint days; occasional light spotting. Bound in green glazed paper boards, all edges gilt, borders on covers and spine in gilt, in matching green glazed paper slipcase; extremities of almanac lightly rubbed, and slipcase with remnant of small paper sticker on one cover, extremities worn. This charming almanac features a short biography of Madame de La Fayette, the celebrated French woman writer, and excerpts from her works. The Bibliothèque Nationale of France, citing Barbier and Quérard, identifies the work’s author as François-Marie Mayeur de Saint-Paul (1758-1818), an actor, playwright and theater director, who is also credited for writing numerous anonymous plays regarded as highly licentious and scandalous at the time. His Chroniqueur désoeuvré (1781-1783) provides a vivid snapshot of Parisian theater gossip in the late eighteenth century. Madame de La Fayette (1634-1693) holds a significant place in French literary history, celebrated for her profound examination of female experience within the rigid social structures of the 17th-century French court. Her influence grew after her death and extended to the 19th century, when the present popular almanac was issued. A short biography on La Fayette is followed by excerpts from her early romance, Zaïde (1671), as well as excerpts from her masterpiece, La Princesse de Clèves (1678)—France’s first historical novel and one of the earliest novels in literature—and another historical work, Histoire d’Henriette d'Angleterre, first published posthumously in 1720. The publisher, Le Fuel (also spelled Lefuel), was active in Paris in the early 19th century and issued other almanacs, including the Almanach des dames, which appeared annually from 1802 to 1840. This series of almanacs by Le Fuel usually included excerpts from famous French writers, especially women, illustrated by plates. Little is known regarding the engraver, Jean-Louis-Auguste Charlin, active in Paris in the early 19th century, who engraved plates on Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign as well as plates for flowers by Redouté.
* Bénézit, vol. 2, p. 676; J. Grand-Carteret, <i>Les almanac français</i> (1896), 1377 (for “Almanach des dames”).
Price: $475.00