Gaspard des montagnes

Gaspard des montagnes was published in 1922: the first title in the series, which gives the whole its name, is set at the beginning of the nineteenth century, in the region of Ambert and the mountains of Livradois. A farmer lives on his estate at Chenerailles, known as the “château aux sept portes,” with his two daughters, Pauline and Anne-Marie; the latter has a childhood friend of her own age, Gaspard, a mischievous character. One day, while the young woman is alone at the estate, a thief breaks into the house in search of the plan to a treasure hidden in the mountains by her uncle Jérôme, who had made his fortune in Guadeloupe.

With this singular novel, Pourrat established himself as the great chronicler of Auvergne and of rural fiction, his “treasury of tales” preserving a remarkable compilation of the region’s oral tradition. Following the first volume came À la belle bergère (Quand Gaspard de guerre revint) in 1925, Le Pavillon des amourettes (Gaspard et les Bourgeois d’Ambert) in 1930, and La Tour du Levant (Quand Gaspard mit fin à l’histoire) in 1931.

While these titles, widely and repeatedly reprinted, are fairly easy to find, the first edition — and even more so the deluxe-paper copies — of the four volumes of Gaspard des montagnes are extremely rare: only 15 complete sets are possible, and this complete deluxe-paper set is the first we have been able to record.

A very fine set in a modest but finely worked contemporary binding, a rare condition.