Second edition, published on 5 March 1831, four months after the octavo first edition issued by the same publisher in November 1830 in 750 copies, all dated 1831.
Stendhal wrote the novel quickly, beginning in 1829, drawing on a real-life case that had occurred in Grenoble, the “affaire Berthet” (1827), in which a young seminarian shot his former mistress inside a church. The manuscript was completed before the summer of 1830, but its publication was delayed by the July Revolution.
Only two extracts — chapters 24 and 25 of the first part — appeared in print beforehand, in the January issue of the Keepsake français ou Souvenir de littérature contemporaine.
The novel, subtitled Chronique du XIXe siècle, received a mixed reception: praised by a few contemporaries but judged austere or immoral by mainstream critics, it enjoyed only limited commercial success. The print run nonetheless sold out within three months, prompting the publishers to issue a second edition in a smaller, more affordable format. The text remained unchanged; only the presentation — a more manageable format and a lower price — was altered, aimed at reaching a wider readership.
An edition that remains very rare.
Complete with the leaf of Avertissement in the first volume and the Avis at the end of volume VI.
Scattered foxing.
Paupe, Histoire des œuvres de Stendhal, 1903, p. 71; Carteret, III, p. 354.