Description

Second edition.
COPY WITH 9 ENGRAVINGS BY FÉLICIEN ROPS and the portrait of the author by Rajon put up for sale in 1886.

When they were published in 1874, Les Diaboliques were prosecuted at the Seine public prosecutor's office. The case was dismissed, but of a total print run of 2,200, the 480 copies in the brokers' shop were destroyed.

According to Alric Delaporte, who reviews the chronology of the work's genesis: "When Alphonse Lemerre bought the rights to the Diaboliques published by Dentu in 1882, no other edition had appeared since the 1874 trial. The subversive potential of this text ensured the success of this second edition.. […] the illustration project began in December 1883 with the frontispiece Le Sphinx. Less than a year later, Rops was in possession of the eight drawings, which were completed by a ninth on 4 September 1885, more than a year and a half after Lemerre's commission."These plates were not marketed until the beginning of 1886.

Attractive period binding in red morocco, the most luxurious cover offered by the publisher.

Vicaire I, 305.
Alric Delaport, Félicien Rops and the illustration of Les Diaboliques by Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly: ramblings and artifice on the genesis of the worksActes de la Journée d'études Actualité de la recherche en XIXe siècle, 2015