One of 15 copies on Japanese paper (no. 6), and one of 40, 50 and 25 copies on Hollande paper (nos. 18, IX and III).
Gaspard des montagnes was published in 1922: the title that opens the series and gives it its name takes us back to the early nineteenth century, in the region of Ambert and the Monts du Livradois. A farmer lives on his estate at Chenerailles, nicknamed the “château aux sept portes,” with his two daughters, Pauline and Anne-Marie. Anne-Marie 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 map to a treasure hidden in the mountains by her uncle Jérôme, who had made his fortune in Guadeloupe.
A novel unique of its kind, Pourrat here emerges as the great chronicler of Auvergne and of the rural novel, his “treasure of tales” leaving us a remarkable compilation of the region’s oral tradition. Following this first volume came À la belle bergère in 1925, Le Pavillon des amourettes in 1930, and La Tour du Levant in 1931.
While these titles, widely and repeatedly reprinted, are fairly easy to find, the first edition, and still more the deluxe-paper copies, of all four volumes of the Gaspard cycle are extremely rare: only 15 complete sets are possible, and this complete deluxe set is only the second we have been able to record to date.
A very fine set, as published.
Gaspard is in mint condition; the spine of the third volume is foxed, otherwise in excellent condition.