Tartarin sur les Alpes

Name: Tartarin sur les Alpes
SKU: 32031
Author: Alphonse Daudet

Paris, Calmann-Lévy, Édition du Figaro Éditeurs, (November 30) 1885.

1 vol. (145 x 220 mm) of 334 p. and [3] f. Half red morocco with corners, spine with false raised bands decorated, gilt title, speckled edges (contemporary binding).

First edition. Illustrated with watercolors by Aranda, de Beaumont, Montenard, Myrbach and Rossi, in black and in color.

Chapatin, Barbarin? Daudet hesitated over the name of his hero. He first chose the name of his cousin, who had served as his model, but after a falling-out with him, he considered “Barbarin”; however, since a well-known figure in Montpellier already bore that name, he altered the first consonant, and Tartarin was finally christened. The hero’s native town remained to be decided; by assonance, Daudet chose Tarascon. No sooner had the book appeared than the townspeople, outraged, brought a libel suit against the author, and anecdote adds that, while walking through the town’s streets with his friend Frédéric Mistral, Daudet was greeted with a shower of stones. Hot-blooded, these Provençals!

Tartarin dans les Alpes appeared thirteen years later, first serialized in Le Bon Journal, before being published in book form in this edition, directly illustrated for its original publication. The manuscript (formerly in the Pierre Leroy collection, acquired by the BnF in 2007) sets out the outline of the future novel: the adventures of Tartarin as an alpinist in Switzerland, and the account of the two ascents, the Jungfrau and Mont Blanc.

A copy of the second printing, with the vignette on p. 330 corrected to the right way up.

Corners rubbed.

Talvart & Place, 33.A; Vicaire III, 57.

#32031

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