Les Sept Femmes de la Barbe-Bleue

Name: Les Sept Femmes de la Barbe-Bleue
SKU: 27075
Author: Anatole France

Paris, Calmann-Lévy, (February 15) 1909.

1 vol. (110 x 185 mm) of [2] f., 306 p. and [1] f. Blue morocco with doublures, spine with raised bands, gilt title, date gilt at foot, edges gilt on the rough, fillets on edges, framed doublures, silk endleaves, original wrappers and spine preserved (binding signed Noulhac, 1917).

First edition. One of the first 75 copies on Japanese paper.

Nominative copy for its publisher, Michel Calmann-Lévy.

Anatole France embodies a distinctly French wit, a worthy heir to the intellectual freedom of Rabelais, Montaigne, Voltaire and a few others. Here he offers a wholly different take on the tale published by Charles Perrault in 1697, proposing an almost outlandish version, cloaked in mock seriousness, in which he delights in reversing the story as it is traditionally known while still respecting its original outline: he starts from the premise that Bluebeard actually existed and sets out to rehabilitate him. Under his pen, Bluebeard becomes a decent, rather timid, good-natured man, far more the victim of his successive wives than they ever were of him. An irreverent and brilliant version, far removed from the smooth, conformist image of Anatole France that the Surrealists hastily buried as “a corpse.”

A flawless binding by Noulhac. The Noulhac workshop was active from 1894 to 1931.

Talvart, VI, 71A.

#27075

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