One of Thirty Sets Printed on Japan Paper

MÉRIMÉE, Prosper. SAINTSBURY, George; LA BELLE SAUVAGE BINDERY|WALLER, Emily Mary|LOYD, Lady Mary|THOMPSON, Edmund Burke|ARNOLD, William M.|PALMER, Olive Edwards|SAINTSBURY, George|DEY, Mary Helena|ROBAUDI, Alcide-Theophile|PAUL, Louise|VUILLIER, Gaston|TOUDOUZE, Edou.

Writings [Japan Paper Edition]. Comprising His Novels, Tales and Letters to an Unknown. With an essay on the genius and achievement of the author by George Saintsbury, M.A.

New York: Croscup & Holby Company, 1905.

The Writings of Prosper Mérimée. Comprising His Novels, Tales and Letters to an Unknown. With an essay on the genius and achievement of the author by George Saintsbury, M.A. New York: Croscup & Holby Company, 1905.

Japan Paper Edition. Limited to thirty numbered copies. Eight octavo volumes (9 x 6 inches; 228 x 152 mm). Etched frontispieces and plates in three states, one on India paper mounted, one on Japan Paper, and one hand-colored. Descriptive tissue guards. Each volume with a watercolor head-piece, initial, and border vignette. With a corrected galley proof sheet (“Proof Corrections as made by Prof. Saintsbury”) tipped in to Carmen.

Bound by La Belle Sauvage Bindery in full dark green crushed levant morocco. Covers elaborately bordered in gilt with fleur-de-lys cornerpieces in onlaid red morocco gilt. Spines in five compartments with four raised bands, gilt-lettered in three compartments, decoratively tooled in gilt in the remaining two compartments with a red morocco onlay in one compartment, gilt board edges and turn-ins, green silk doublures and liners, top edge gilt, others uncut. A fine set in an superb binding.

Comprising: Carmen, Arsène Guillot, Abbé Aubain. Translated by Emily Mary Waller, the Lady Mary Loyd, and Dr. Edmund Burke Thompson. With illustrations by Gustave Fraipont and S. Arcos. [And:] The Double Mistake, Soul in Purgatory, The Venus of Ille. Translated by William M. Arnold, Olive Edwards Palmer, and Emily Mary Waller. With Illustrations by Gustave Fraipont, A. Bramtot, and J.J. Aranda. [And:] The Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX. Translated by Prof. George Saintsbury, M.A. With illustrations by Edouard Toudouze. [And:] The Mosaic. Comprising Mateo Falcone, and Other Tales. Translated by Emily Mary Waller and Mary Helena Dey. With illustrations by J. Le Blaut, P. Sinibaldi, Luc Olivier Merson, Myrbach, Ed. de Beaumont, and Lalauze. [And:] Colomba. Translated by the Lady Mary Loyd. With illustrations by Gaston Vuillier. [And:] Letters to an Unknown. Translated by Olive Edwards Palmer. Illustrated with contemporary drawings and portraits. Two volumes. [And:] Last Stories and Translations. Translated by Emily Mary Waller and Louise Paul. With illustrations by A. Robaudi.

Prosper Mérimée (1803-1870), “French dramatist and master of the short story whose works—romantic in theme but classical in style—were a renewal of classicism in a romantic age...Mérimée’s short stories, many of which are mysteries, best illustrate his imagination and somber temperament. Spain and Russia were his principal literary sources, and he was the first interpreter of Russian literature in France. Aleksandr Pushkin was his master, especially for his themes of violence and cruelty and the human psychology behind them. In one of Mérimée’s best-known stories, Mateo Falcone (1829), a father kills a son for betraying the family honor. The collection Mosaïque (1833) was followed by his most famous novellas: Colomba (1840), the story of a young Corsican girl who forces her brother to commit murder for the sake of a vendetta, and Carmen (1845), in which an unfaithful Gypsy girl is killed by a soldier who loves her” (Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature).

HBS 65809.

$4,000.

Price: $4,000.00

Item #65809