RÉTIF DE LA BRETONNE (Nicolas-Edme). Set of 3 works in homog - Lot 17

RÉTIF DE LA BRETONNE (Nicolas-Edme). Set of 3 works in homogeneous bindings, i.e. 8 volumes in-12, red half-chagrin with corners, compartmented ribbed spines with boxes decorated with a latticework of geometric motifs, gilt heads (binding from the second half of the 19th century). -LePaysan perverti, ou les Dangers de la ville; histoire récente, mise au jour d'après les véritables lettres des personnages. Printed in LaHaie. Et se trouve à Paris, chés Esprit, 1776 [i.e. 1782]. 4 vols. in-12, vii-(one)-304 +312 +304 +293-(3)pp. text printed on laid paper, generally azure, prints printed on white laid paper; a few shorter leaves including numerous plates, frontispieces of the first and third parts doubled, the first with angular gap filled. Partly original edition, restoring the uncensored full text (JamesR.Childs, n°XIV-10). Written between 1769 and 1774, this partly autobiographical epistolary novel had originally appeared in November 1775, albeit dated 1776, and had then had to be redacted due to censorship. The present edition of 1782 received numerous additions and modifications designed to restore the original text. First illustrated edition: 82 plates engraved by Louis-Sébastien Berthet and Jacques LeRoy after Louis Binet. Copy includes 2 of the plates in their extremely rare pre-censorship condition: they depict Père d'Arras in cordelier garb in situations deemed unbecoming of a religious, and would later be modified at the request of the censors to show him in lay garb. A dark, partly autobiographical novel, LePaysan perverti tells the story of a weak, cursed and manipulated man, alternating between hesitation, violence and remorse. -LaPaysane pervertie, ou les Dangers de la ville; histoire d'Ursule R**, sœur d'Edmond, le paysan, mise au jour d'après les véritables lettres des personages [...]. By the author of Paysan perverti. Printed in LaHaie. Et se trouve à Paris chés la d.me veuve Duchesne, 1784. 4volumes in-12, 344 +220 +320 [malchiffrées 220]+344pp. missing printed faux-titres counting for pp.1-2 of each volume; a few shorter leaves including numerous plates, a few angular misses including one restored in vol.IV. First edition (JamesR.Childs, n°XXIX-1). Written in a very short space of time, September-October 1780, this work was printed from February to May 1783, but went on sale late in August 1785, due to repeated pressure from the censors: some copies even received a new title leaf pasted on top of the first, deleting the bold formula LaPaysane pervertie and retaining only the subtitle, LesDangers de la ville. Copper-engraved illustration after Louis Binet by Louis-Sébastien Berthet, Jacques LeRoy and Antoine-Cosme Giraud dit Giraud jeune. A complete copy of the 2 plates added later, which are often missing. A partly autobiographical social novel, LaPaysanne pervertie tells the story of a girl who indulges in debauchery, is punished for it, repents, but cannot escape her tragic fate by dying murdered by her brother. Written as a companion piece to The Perverted Peasant, and eventually reunited in a single work with the latter (reprinted in 1787), this novel nonetheless retains a certain autonomy in that it deals with the same subject matter but in a different light. -LesFigures du Paysan perverti [...]. Les Figures de la Paysane pervertie. S.l.n.d. [1783-1785]. 2parts in-12 with special titles, cclxliv-(12) and lxxii-8pp. For the first part, the paginated leaves iàclxviii were bound at the end of vol.IV of Le Paysan perverti, and the following leaves were bound in vol.IV of La Paysanne pervertie; for the second part, the paginated leavesiàlxxii were bound at the end of vol.IV of La Paysanne pervertie, and the paginated leaves 1à8 were bound after p.344 of the same volume. First edition (JamesR.Childs, n°XXVI, who considers these two separately paginated and signed issues as one).