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Lot n° 81

Charles-Augustin de SAINTE-BEUVE.

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Volupté. Paris, Eugène Renduel, 1834. 2 volumes in-8: aubergine half-chagrin à la Bradel, smooth spines, entirely untrimmed, mute covers preserved (late 19th century binding). First edition, published without author's name. The only novel by Sainte-Beuve, it has autobiographical aspects. Indeed, in many respects, Amaury is Sainte-Beuve and Mme de Couaën is Mme Victor Hugo. The work had a brilliant posterity. Balzac and Flaubert will "remake" Volupté: they will be Le Lys dans la vallée and L'Éducation sentimentale. A unique copy, printed on China paper for the publisher Eugène Renduel. It is preserved at all margins. Small wormholes without gravity. Slight spotting to the bindings. From the libraries of Eugène Renduel, Adolphe Jullien (1933, no. 121), André Lefevre (1966, no. 643) and Louis de Sadeleer, with bookplate for the latter. (Carteret II, p. 291: "The publisher has had a copy printed for him on China paper - currently Ad. Jullien library.")