Le Paradis perdu

4 volumes in-12, red morocco, coats of arms stamped in the center of the covers, triple gilt fillet border, smooth spine decorated with gilt tools, olive morocco title and volume labels, inner roll, gilt edges. Contemporary binding.

142 x 82 mm.

Milton, John (1608-1674). Milton’s Paradise Lost, heroic poem translated from English with the remarks of Mr. Addison.
Paris, 1765.

The famous heroic poem by Milton bound for the Countess of Provence.

New revised and corrected edition in the prose translation by Dupré de Saint-Maur, with the remarks of Joseph Addison. The third volume contains Paradise Regained and various other works by Milton (Lycidas, L’allegro, Il pensero, etc.).

“One of the greatest, most noble and sublime poems which either this age or nation has produced” (John Dryden).
Grolier, Wither to Prior, 604; Lowndes, 1588; Pforzheimer, 716; Wing. M2142.

A powerful spirit animates this vast poem by John Milton (1608-1674), with its solemn rhythm. Drawing inspiration from the highest truths, Milton confides to us—though not without taking certain liberties with orthodoxy—his religious, political, and social ideas. No one has so boldly placed the human creature at the center of the universe as Milton. To the point that, for him, the central character is not Adam, but Satan. Paradise Lost portrays for the first time the drama of the Fall with complete psychological truth, and the rebellion of the fallen angel becomes glorious. In this work, one finds both an exaltation of the power given to man to sin and redeem himself, and an apology for revolt, already heralding romantic Satanism. Did Milton have an intuition of this? What captivated him in this poem was essentially the grandeur, the poetry of a cosmic tragedy matching his religious anxiety. Among the artists who illustrated the poem, we can mention Gustave Doré (1833-1883) and William Blake (1757-1827), whose “Satan Gathering his Legions” brings Michelangelo to mind.

The work was translated several times into French: Dupré de Saint Maur, 1729; Louis Racine, 1808; F. R. de Chateaubriand, 1836; Aubier, 1952-1955.

Provenance: Sir Henry Francis Redhead Yorke (1842-1914), private secretary at the Admiralty, with bookplate.

Precious copy bound in red morocco with the arms of the Countess of Provence (1753-1810).

“Marie-Joséphine-Louise-Bénédicte of Savoy, second daughter of Victor-Amédée III, Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia, and of Marie-Antoinette-Ferdinande, Infanta of Spain, born in Turin on 2 September 1753, married on 14 May 1771 Louis-Stanislas-Xavier, Count of Provence, later Louis XVIII, with whom she had no children. In exile, she assumed the title Countess of Lille and died at Hartwell, England, on 13 November 1810.”

“The Countess of Provence had, like her husband, who prided himself on his literary culture and cultivated the muses, a taste for Letters and the Arts. Her library, with its manuscript catalogue now at the Arsenal, had been assembled with great intelligence.”