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THE DRAMATIC WORKS OF MOLIÈRE.
(Edinburgh: W. Paterson, 1875-76). 242 x 158 mm. (9 1/2 x 6 1/4"). Six volumes. Translated from the French by Henri von Laun.
ELEGANT CONTEMPORARY BURNT ORANGE CRUSHED MOROCCO BY ANDREW GRIEVE OF EDINBURGH (stamp-signed on front pastedown), covers with double gilt-rule border and mitered frame with oblique lily cornerpieces, raised bands, spines gilt in double-ruled compartments with lily at center, gilt titling, richly gilt turn-ins in a closely-spaced floral and foliate pattern, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, five of the volumes PARTLY UNOPENED. With a frontispiece portrait of the playwright in volume I and 34 etchings by Adolphe Lalauze, all with tissue guards. Front pastedowns with engraved bookplate of Andrew Smith of Whitchester. ◆IN EXCEPTIONALLY FINE CONDITION, mostly unread and entirely unworn.
This is a handsomely illustrated English version of the plays of Molière, still considered the greatest writer of French comedies. The set is offered here in simply decorated but elegant bindings produced by the fine Edinburgh workshop of Andrew Grieve, using the highest quality materials. Grieve was a first-rate binder, but he is best known as the teacher of Charles McLeish, who worked 16 years for the exacting Cobden-Sanderson as finisher at the Doves Bindery. Under the stage name "Molière," actor and playwright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622-73) penned and produced satirical plays--many of which caused considerable scandal--at the Parisian theater now known as the Comédie Française. According to Britannica, "the actor in him influenced his writing, since he wrote (at speed) what he could most naturally act. . . . His characters are imagined as excitable and excited to the point of incoherence. He sacrifices plot to drama, vivacity, a sense of life. He is a classical writer, yet he is ready to defy all rules of writing." The present collection contains the masterworks "Tartuffe," "The Misanthrope," and "The Bourgeois Gentleman," as well as the scandalous "School for Wives," and lesser-known works--33 plays in all. A scene from each of the plays is depicted in the etchings by the talented and prolific illustrator Lalauze, who also contributed a portrait of the playwright. While French in content and with a text in English, the present set is Scottish in production and provenance. Translator Henri van Laun (1820-96) was a French master at Edinburgh Academy who was encouraged to undertake this translation into English by his acquaintances among that city's intelligentsia. The books were printed in Edinburgh and bound there, probably for former owner Andrew Smith, an Edinburgh brewer and bibliophile. (ST13010)
Price: $2,900.00