Description

FIRST EDITION printed in 1833 with a preface by Alexandre Dumas.
Frontispiece engraved by Mauduit after Johannot printed on Chine monté, title decorated with a vignette engraved by Brevière.
Resold copy - repurchased by Madame Goulet's publishers - with a new title page at her address and an edition statement and dated 1834.

A major figure in Romantic poetry, and the only woman to be elevated by Verlaine to the rank of "accursed poet", Marceline Desbordes-Valmore was an actress until 1823, when she devoted herself solely to poetry, publishing, among other works  Elegies and new poetrys (1824), Crying (1833), Poor flowers (1839) and Bouquets and Prayers (1843). Noted for her lyricism and the boldness of her versification, she received several academic distinctions and a royal pension from Louis-Philippe I. Although her work inspired Rimbaud, Verlaine, Anna de Noailles, Gérard d'Houville and Renée Vivien, Marceline Desbordes-Valmore was long classed among the "lesser romantics". Today, her work is widely recognised by academics, and there is a study society dedicated to her. Crying is on the syllabus for the 2023 agrégation de lettres.

A prize copy, offered on 22 August 1835, in a superb romantic binding in red calf.

National Library. Romanticism: exhibition catalogue. p. 77, n°231. Clouzot p. 47.