Les Trois Mousquetaires
The finest copy to appear on the market in over half a century, from the Loliée library.
8 volumes 8vo. Contemporary cherry half-calf, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets and gilt, mottled edges.
198 x 12 mm.
Dumas Alexandre. Les Trois Mousquetaires.
Paris, Baudry, 1844.
First edition "of an unrivaled masterpiece. One of the most widely read books in the world."
"Rare and highly sought-after. Extremely rare in beautiful period condition, reaching very high prices" (Marcel Clouzot).
Originally published in Le Siècle between March 14 and July 14, 1844, the work instantly gained universal fame, thanks to its mythical heroes who haunt not only the book but also the collective unconscious: D’Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis (In French in the text, No. 263).
"The heroes of these adventures are four gentlemen, inseparable friends, musketeers of Louis XIII: Athos, in reality the Count de la Fère, was ruined by a tragic marriage with an adventuress; he became a musketeer out of despair, with a romantic, noble, and proud soul; Porthos, whose real name is du Vallon, is a good-natured and vain giant; Aramis, or the Chevalier d’Herblay, torn from his religious vocation by a romantic affair, continually oscillates between a vague mysticism, a thoroughly Jesuitical skill in intrigues, secret and highly aristocratic loves, and a great deal of bold bravery. To the first three companions is added d’Artagnan, a courageous and cunning Gascon, who arrives from his native province, full of wild ambitions and with scant resources; he will become the hero of the story."
The skill with which this work is carried out is found in no other of the same kind.
Alongside the serialized novel, which had just appeared with the Mysteries of Paris by Eugène Sue, Alexandre Dumas created a new genre by exploiting the attraction the history of France had for the public and by taking advantage of the publication of chronicles and memoirs undertaken following the vast movement that created modern history in France at the beginning of the 19th century. Founder of this genre, Dumas was to remain its model.
The finest copy to have appeared on the market in over half a century, very pure, preserved in its period bindings of exceptional freshness, without any restoration, of exquisite, luminous, and extremely rare shade. It comes from the personal library of Marc Loliée, a prominent member of a dynasty of great booksellers specializing in the finest copies of the 19th century.
