Mémoires sur la vie de Jean Racine
First edition of the Memoirs of the Life of Jean Racine with several of his works appearing for the first time, bound at the time with the coat of arms of Madame de Pompadour.
2 volumes 12mo, blonde calf, triple gilt fillet, gilt armorials in the center, smooth spine with gilt decoration, green title and volume labels, inner gilt roll, red edges. Contemporary binding.
146 x 85 mm.
Racine, Louis. Memoirs on the Life of Jean Racine.
Lausanne and Geneva, Marc-Michel Bousquet & Compagnie, 1747.
First edition.
Tchemerzine, V, 367; Guibert, 295-298; Brunet, 30 611; Cioranescu, 51959; Barbier, III, 256.
“The first volume contains the Memoirs on the Life of Jean Racine written by his son Louis Racine, as well as various pieces attributed to Racine; the second contains the Correspondence, which at that time was unpublished” (Tchemerzine).
The purpose was, for the two sons of the great dramatic poet, Jean-Baptiste and Louis, to put an end to the slander and clichés spread up to then by the editors of the Works of Jean Racine. In the end, it was Louis who undertook this task and published, in Switzerland, his Memoirs on the Life of Jean Racine. The edition consists of two volumes: the first contains the Memoirs and various pieces by Racine, separately paginated, some of which are unpublished; the second volume is titled Collection of Letters of Jean Racine, most of which had never been published before.
These Memoirs provide the most interesting and often unpublished details on the origin of Racine’s family, his beginnings, his friendship with Boileau, his relations with Molière and Corneille, and above all on the reception of his various plays.
After these Memoirs comes the Speech delivered at the Académie Française for the reception of Abbé Colbert on October 30, 1678, in which Racine, after highlighting the personal merits of the recipient in the fields of science and religion, paid high tribute to the King, patron of the Academy, and to the Colbert family, whose members occupied the most enviable positions in the State.
Following the Speech is the outline of Act 1 of Iphigenia, which, according to Louis Racine, is the only poetic fragment found among his father’s papers.
The Extract from Lucian is a real thesis on the art of the historian and the manner of writing history. Racine is said to have written it for inspiration when he was appointed royal historiographer.
The historical fragments are notes written by Racine, jotted down “without style and without order”. They are collected as is, without concern for what use the author might have made of them.
The Pious Reflections on Some Passages of Holy Scripture give a very accurate idea of Racine’s moral and religious concerns.” (Guibert).
Written by his son, Louis Racine, Racine’s life met with great success as it became the main source for all those published thereafter.
“His Memoirs are not merely an act of filial piety. They also provide information on Boileau, the taste of his time, narrow and conventional. The anecdotes are amusing and lively. Above all, the commentary on each play reveals one of the essential aspects of the desiccating grammatical purism that reigned until the end of the eighteenth century” (Grente).
Handsome copy in blond calf with the arms of the Marquise de Pompadour, an attractive provenance that recalls the favorite of Louis XV’s taste for theater.
“The French language, thanks to Boileau, Racine, and the writers of our century, is the only foreign idiom the Russians have adopted. Catherine is said to speak this language with great purity,” Madame de Pompadour proudly stated in her Memoirs (1830, vol. I, p. 229).
The copy is listed in the catalogue of the library of Madame de Pompadour (1765) under no. 3511.
Copies with arms are extremely rare; that of Jacques Guérin with the arms of Madame Victoire was sold for 50,850 FF (€7,750) on March 29, 1984, 35 years ago (Ref: Très beaux livres anciens. Paris, 29 May 1984, no. 83).
