[MÉRIMÉE (Prosper)]. 1572. Chronicle of the... - Lot 20 - Osenat

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[MÉRIMÉE (Prosper)]. 1572. Chronicle of the... - Lot 20 - Osenat
[MÉRIMÉE (Prosper)]. 1572. Chronicle of the time of Charles IX. Paris, Alexandre Mesnier, 1829. In-8, (4)-xv-(1 blank)-383-(1 blank) pp, washed copy, garnet morocco, spine ribbed, partitioned and decorated with fleurons with central four-lobed motif, large framing of fillets and fleurons including those of corners with central four-lobed motif, filleted edges, filleted inner frame with small gilt corner motifs, gilt edges (Canape.R.D.) , the volume is set in an antique black morocco slipcase, spine ribbed, with double gilt fillets framing the boards and entrenerfs, unsigned. ORIGINAL EDITION, issued without large paper. BOOKS & AUTOGRAPHS THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021 26FLIPPANT AND COMMITTED HISTORICAL NOVEL. Emancipating himself from the fashion for grandiloquent historical novels in the manner of Walter Scott (whose readers he ridicules in chapter viii), Mérimée abandons the great movements and high-ranking characters to focus on the details, the reactions of individuals to events. As a "storyteller", he states: "I only like anecdotes in history, and among the anecdotes I prefer those in which I imagine I will find a true picture of the customs and characters of a given period [...]. Memoirs, which are familiar conversations between the author and his reader, are the only ones that provide these portraits of man, which amuse and interest me" (p. i). Although he clears the royal power of the August 1572 massacre - "a popular insurrection [...] improvised" -, Mérimée shows a very clear sympathy for the Protestant victims. EXAMPLE WITH AN AUTOGRAPHIC LETTER SIGNED BY PROSPER MÉRIMÉE, addressed to the architect Émile Boeswillwald, his successor as inspector general of historical monuments (Cannes, n.d.) : he offers him two ""zivanéhs"" ("wooden pipes that carry the amber end of a pipe, and a Chinese bowstring,"" which he sketches in his hand), speaks of his ""lizard life"" in the sun, of the new buildings in Cannes, including the villa of his former deputy Henri de Courmont, worries about the poor health of the empress, which Viollet-le-Duc had warned him about, and gives instructions about a commission he had asked his friend the lawyer Josep Xifré Downing to give to the countess of Montijo, the empress's mother. RICHLY DECORATED CANAPE BINDING IN THE ROMANTIC STYLE. Provenance: Chantal Cazaux (bookplate).
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