Le Sopha Conte Moral.
17421923The second edition following the very scarce Le Sopha couleur de roze 1120 de l'Hégire a Gaznah also published in 1742. Neither Jones nor Tchemerzine had seen a copy of this earlier edition Jones just lists the present edition as the first but it does exist: OCLC lists copies at Cambridge V&A Penn McGill and Texas.<br /> Le Sopha is Crébillon fils' most brilliant novel. It was enormously popular in its time with its humour its mild eroticism and its fashionable eastern setting and is still entertaining today. Dozens of editions have been published from the eigtheenth century to the present. The central character was thought to have been based on Louis XV a suspicion which was enough to enable Madame de Pompadour to have Crébillon exiled for five years. Laclos further immortalised the work by making it the favourite reading for Madame de Merteuil in his Les Liaisons dangereuses.<br /> 'Crébillon déteste et méprise l'étroite société qu'il décrite ses hauts personnages hypocrites corrompus égoïstes méchants inutiles médisants fats et quelquefois sots il fait même passer l'expression satirique de sa haine avant l'intérêt romanesque . A part deux chapitres du Sopha qui évoquent avec lyrisme le franc et vrai plaisir d'aimer tout le reste de l'oeuvre est pessimiste et grimaçant . à la galerie des imposteurs et des vicieux s'oppose une galerie de libertins lucides mais aussi antipathiques et dont aucun n'est vraiment heureux' Henri Coulet Le Roman au XVIII Siècle pp. 365-366. We can be thankful for those two chapters which are chapter seven and the final chapter.<br /><br /><i>Two volumes 12mo in eights and fours 162 x 92mm pp. vi 298; vi 264 title pages in red and blackin contemporary calf spines gilt in compartments head of spines chipped upper joint of first volume cracking other joints beginning to show some wear extremities bumped red morocco labels lettered and numbered in gilt marbled endpapers all edges gilt with the bookplate of Anthony Conyers Surtees in volume one.</i><br /><br />Jones p. 79; Tchemerzine IV p. 193 b and p. 194 figs. I & II; Gay III 1135; see Cioranescu 21744. <br /><br />OCLC lists McGill Arkansas Yale Harvard Texas Bodley & V&A; RLIN adds Princeton and Penn. L’Imprimerie du Très-Pieux, Très-Clément & Très-Auguste Sultan des Indes
Amanda Hall Rare Books · Royaume-Uni1 200,00 $US≈ 1 015,32 €
