Les folies du siècle

8vo of (2) ll., 299 pp., (1) l., 1 frontispiece and 6 plates.

Contemporary green morocco, gilt floral border framing the covers, decorated smooth spine, gilt edges.

209 X 121 mm.

Lelarge de Lourdoueix, Jacques Honoré. Les folies du siècle. Roman philosophique orné de sept caricatures.

Paris, Pillet, 1817.

First edition of this satire on the events of the French Revolution.

Quérard, V, 56 ; Barbier, IV, 22526 ; Archives philosophiques, politiques et littéraires, II, 355-361 ; A. F. Nettement, Histoire de la Restauration, VI, p.102.

Our copy bears the following handwritten dedication: « To Monsieur le Comte de Corbière, tribute from the author».

« Reason prevails in this work, and it is a reason that is both strong and cheerful, moral and liberal. The author mocks many people, and himself a little; but through his mockery shines a serious mind, too firm not to despise incompetence and ineptitude, even when they are allied with strength; too enlightened to be taken in by the hypocrisy that today masks so many personal interests. Shall we add that his caricatures are full of grace and truth? Everything is good when it comes to making reason popular ».

A unique copy with the author's seven original watercolors, hand-colored at the time:

- The aristocrat reviewing the revolutionary abuses: “Then the bandits will appear amid the ruins.”

- Napoleon on Elba using Croquemitaine: “We will eat another five or six kings...”

- The aristocrat surrounded by two revolutionaries: “You must all love each other like brothers!”

The frontispiece features a watercolor depicting the author looking through a magic lantern at France torn between revolutionaries and aristocrats.

- “Can't you see all these ghosts of the old monarchy advancing with giant strides? Can't you see the aristocracy reappearing in the guise of property...?”

- “Honor to the French nobility, whose memories you breathe into us... I salute you, gentle southeast wind that blows at this moment.”

« Mr. de Lourdoueix, one of the most remarkable polemicists of the time, skilled at tying up the knot of a syllogism, wielding high-minded mockery, and one of the main editors of La Gazette de France, had taken a very strong stand against the chamber of 1815 in his writing Les folies du siècle (The follies of the century) » (A. F. Nettement).

Mr. de Lourdoueix was the bête noire of Le Conservateur, Chateaubriand's newspaper.

Publicist and journalist Jacques Honoré Lelarge de Lourdoueix (1787-1860) was employed in the offices of the prefecture of Antwerp. He returned to France following the events of 1814 and wrote for Le Mercure and La Gazette de France. He became editor of Le Spectateur, a newspaper designed to support the Decazes ministry.

An ardent polemicist, he was one of those known at the time as the “Voltairians of the right,” who sought to combine religious and legitimist traditions with the philosophical and liberal tendencies of their era. Thus, at a time when other parties were content to call for simple electoral reform, Mr. de Lourdoueix put forward the principle of popular sovereignty and demanded universal suffrage.

A precious copy preserved in its contemporary morocco with uin vert à grain long de l’époque, with the author's seven original watercolors, hand-colored at the time and with a handwritten dedication by the author.

Jacques-Joseph, Count of Corbière (1766-1835) was appointed president of the Royal Council of Public Instruction in 1820, and minister of the interior in Richelieu's cabinet, then in Villèle's cabinet in 1821 (opposed to freedom of the press). He was in favor of sending troops to the Spanish War in 1823. He retired in 1830 to his estate in Amanlis, surrounded by his books and collections, where he died in 1853. He was a member of the Société des bibliophiles français (Society of French Bibliophiles).