Lettres d'une péruvienne
Rare first edition of the Letters of a Peruvian Woman, this satirical work that would be placed on the Index.
A very fine and precious copy preserved in its contemporary binding.
3 works bound in 2 duodecimo volumes: I/ (1) f., VIII and 337 pp.; II/ 62 pp., (1) blank f., (4) ff., 186 pp. Marbled calf, triple gilt fillet framing the covers, spine with raised bands decorated with double fillet and gilt fleurons, title and volume labels in red morocco, gilt fillet on edges, red edges.
Period binding.
140 x 79 mm.
Graffigny, Françoise de. Letters from a Peruvian Woman.
A Peine, n.d. [Paris, Veuve Pissot, December 1747].
Followed by: Sequel to the Letters from a Peruvian Woman.
A Peine, n.d. [1748].
Followed by: Letters from Aza or from a Peruvian. Conclusion to the Peruvian Letters.
N.p., 1749 [i.e. Paris, Veuve Pissot, December 1748].
True first edition of Madame de Graffigny's masterpiece, which was placed on the Index on July 28, 1765.
The first to be published among the 11 editions bearing the "A Peine" imprint, without date or author, listed by David Smith. Quérard, III, 440; Brunet, II, 1690; Gay, II, 832.
The work went through numerous editions and was translated into several languages.
Françoise de Graffigny had already made a name for herself with her Letters on Voltaire, having sought refuge with him at Cirey.
Montesquieu's Persian Letters served as her model.
By taking up the exotic tone and epistolary style employed by Montesquieu in his Persian Letters, Françoise de Graffigny exposes the faults of society through the fictional pen of Zilia, “a young Peruvian woman exiled in France, who writes to her lover, Aza: arriving in an unknown world, she gradually comes to understand it, manages to learn its customs, and finally learns to judge Parisian society outside traditional hypocrisy. The delicacy and refinement of certain descriptions led some to say that she cleverly added, to Montesquieu’s masterpiece, a pinch of Richardson’s Pamela. The work was an enormous success with the society of her time, who saw themselves reflected in this mixture of clear ideas, subtle criticism, and devilish wit ” (Laffont-Bompiani).
The author, a friend of Rousseau, borrowed from the philosopher the dream of a natural world, but which for her was embodied in the woman. As a feminist, she denounces especially in letter 34 the painful condition of women in her era. Madame de Graffigny skillfully combines the satire of mores (it is claimed that Turgot’s economic and social reforms were inspired by it) with the most delicate and exquisite sense of decorum.
Exceptional copy composed of the true first edition, first printing of Letters from a Peruvian Woman by Madame de Graffigny followed by the two sequels that completed it: the Sequel to the Letters from a Peruvian Woman attributed to the Chevalier de Mouhy and the Letters from Aza or from a Peruvian attributed to Ignace Hugary de La Marche-Courmont.
Beautiful and precious copy, preserved in its period binding, of one of the most important eighteenth-century first editions and hardest to find.
This essential work of French literature was adapted into an opera in 1754 by Marc-Antoine-Jacques de Chabannes under the title: La Péruvienne, opéra-comique.
