La Vie de mon père
First edition of The Life of My Father preserved in its contemporary binding.
Two parts in 1 volume in-12 of (3) ll., 152 pp.; 139 pp., (3) pp.
Hardcover, smooth spine decorated with false fillets and gilt fleurons, red morocco title label, marbled edges, tiny spots on a few leaves not affecting the text. Contemporary binding.
166 x 96 mm.
Restif de la Bretonne, Nicolas Edme. The Life of My Father. By the Author of The Corrupted Peasant.
Neufchatel, and available in Paris, Widow Duchesne, 1779.
First edition, second printing "of the most famous of all Restif’s books" (Dictionary of Works).
It is decorated with 14 full-page engravings outside the text and 2 medallion portraits depicting the author’s father and mother, on the title page of each part.
Rive Childs, 248-249; Lacroix, pp. 152-154; Cohen, 501; Pichon, 3426; Bulletin Morgand et Fatout, 5243 and 9533; Sander, 1713.
Considered by its author as the most worthy writing he ever produced, this lively biography of Restif’s father remains one of the most accurate portrayals of the peasant condition shortly before the Revolution, and an excellent source of information on rural life in eighteenth-century France. The author recounts with great freshness of style the labors and days of Edmé Restif (1692-1764), a Burgundian farmer.
The sensitive tone adopted by the author suited the taste of the time so well that it became a success.
With France in the last century of the Ancien Régime as its backdrop, Restif brings to life an unforgettable figure: a peasant venerated by his fellow villagers of Sacy. This is the best of Restif, with the skill and color of a born writer. It is at once a monument raised to his father by a son reproaching himself (though only half believing it) for having abandoned the land, a document on peasant life, and an evocation of a family cocoon, a patriarchal community, and the land of his childhood. (Dictionary of Works).
This is what Restif says about it: "This work, the most worthy of mine and the one whose success was most widespread, was inspired in me all at once. Finishing the printing of the 'New Abelard,' on which I had worked relentlessly, I set pen to paper with fervor and wrote it in one go, as I was occupied with nothing else as long as the printing lasted." (My Works, p. 149).
"It is of this little work, written in 1778, that a man in office said: 'I wish the Ministry would print a hundred thousand of these little pieces to distribute free to all village chiefs.'" (Review of Works, p. CLXXXV).
The Journal de Paris (issue of Wednesday, March 24, 1779) gave the highest praise to The Life of My Father: "This new work by Restif de la Bretonne seems to us above all he has published, both in the choice of subject and in its usefulness, simplicity, and even—one might say—the greatness of the sentiments. Everything in it is natural, interesting, and true."
Copy preserved in its precious period cardboard binding.
