L'Eve future

Octavo, (2) leaves, iii pages, (1) leaf, 379 pages. Copy in original wrappers, uncut, as issued, beige slipcase.

First issue copy, with the red cover illustrated by Gorguet.

Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, Auguste de. The Future Eve.Paris, M. de Brunhoff, 1886.

First edition of this masterpiece by Villiers de L’Isle-Adam dedicated “To dreamers. To mockers”.Carteret, II, 472; Clouzot, 277.

Enriched with an autograph inscription signed by the author.

“The Future Eve is a metaphysical fantasy in novel form attacking the evils of our mechanized civilization” (Anthology of 19th Century Storytellers).

This novelistic masterpiece by Villiers de L'Isle-Adam is a contribution to the nascent genre of science fiction. Embodying the impossible quest for perfect love, the heroine transfigured by the inventor Thomas Edison is an electrified robot endowed with every human trait. How could one not fall for the beguiling automaton, so brilliantly intelligent?

She may lack a soul, but the source of her intelligence lies in two golden phonographs she contains, upon which are recorded the thoughts of the greatest poets and metaphysicians of the century.

The Surrealists hailed the accursed poet’s irony, his black humor, and his focus on the marvelous. Alfred Jarry and Raymond Roussel are close by.

“The Future Eve is a tale with magical reflections: enchanting lyricism and irony, not without a certain heaviness, combine here to create, in a sophisticated play, a narrative made of shadows and light. A work closely linked to the Cruel Tales and, like them, inspired by absolute metaphysical idealism, it is by far one of the author’s best tales, among the most curious and most suggestive” (Dictionary of Works).

“The Future Eve, Villiers de l’Isle-Adam’s masterwork, bears witness, with great finesse, to the vitality of the mad scientist myth” (P. S.)

Rodolphe Salis (1851-1897) was the creator of the Parisian cabaret Le Chat Noir, which he opened in 1881 and which took its name from an extraordinary story by Edgar Poe. His friend Villiers de l’Isle-Adam was a regular at this establishment, a symbol of the Montmartre spirit.

This copy is also enriched with a short passage from the novel, handwritten and repeatedly corrected by the author.