Author: MOLIERE, Jean Baptiste Poquelin, called
Title: Oeuvres complètes de Molière. Nouvelle édition imprimée sur celles de 1679 et 1682, avec des notes explicatives sur les mots qui ont vieilli. Ornée de portraits en pied coloriés représentant les principaux personnages de chaque pièce. Dessins de MM. Geffroy, sociétaire de la Comédie française, et Maurice Sand. Gravures de MM. Wolf et Manceau. Précédée d'une introduction par Jules Janin.
Description: Paris: Laplace, Sanchez et Cie, 1875. Fol. xv, 649, [2]p. Text in 2 columns. Hand-coloured frontispiece + 19 hand-coloured plates (most with tissue guards) of characters in Molière's plays. Neat marginal paper repair on pp.85-86; very light, unobtrusive marginal discolouration on final few pages. Half maroon leather, marbled paper-covered boards, scuffed at corners and edges; top edge gilt. Bookseller's ticket: Librairie Vve Paul Chaumas, Bordeaux. Signature of Guillaume Pattie, Glasgow, Ecosse, 16 avril 1879 on front flyleaf and later signature of Allan Laurie. ***** "Molière may be said to have created modern French comedy by giving it a serious basis, where there had previously been little but farces and comedies of intrigue on Italian and Spanish models. His genius lay in his ability to combine profound personal observations of human nature in its complexity and in its foibles with the power of presenting these in their amusing aspect, that is to say short of the point where they turn to tragedy (though some of his greatest comedies reach the boundary). His lighter pieces, on the other hand, shine by their gaiety and absurdity. He was thus a master both of high comedy and farce." - P. Harvey, Oxford companion to French literature. In this edition the frontispiece is a somewhat fanciful portrait of Molière designed by H. Allouard and etched by Monnin. Cf. Catalogue of the Molière collection in Harvard College Library acquired chiefly from the library of the late Ferdinand Bôcher, compiled by Ernest Lewis Gay, items 84 & 89. Cf. Henri Levallois, Catalogue des ouvrages de Molière conservés au Département des Imprimés et dans les bibliothèques Mazarine, Sainte-Geneviève, de l'Arsenal et de l'Université de Paris, nos 283, 284.

Keywords: French, drama, antiquarian


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