Description

The Necromancer or Prince of Venice. Memoirs of the Count of O***, by Schiller, translated and finished by Mme la Baronne de Montolieu. 

ORIGINAL FRENCH EDITION of Schiller's unfinished German novel, published in 1789 and later translated as The Visionary.

This first translation of the Baronne de Montolieu is unique in that it was completed by the translator herself: "But I, his weak translator, need to apologise for daring to join in his work and finish what he had started so well. […] Schiller ended when the Count of O*** returned to Venice; he only hinted at the terrible events that had taken place in his absence. I have tried to go into more detail, to put the Armenian and Seraphina back on stage, as they were no longer mentioned, and thus to link the denouement with the first part. […] I did everything I could to imitate [tone] of Schiller, and that there was not too much disparity. It's up to the readers to decide whether I've succeeded."

THE COPY WAS PART OF THE FAMOUS 79 CATALOGUE OF THE BOOKSHOP MARC LOLIEE, Romans Noirs - Fairy Tales - Fantastic Tales - The Marvellous - Pre-Surrealists - Esotericismpublished in 1952 under number 543. The two volumes are still covered in the charming Bradel-style full-paper boards with elegant red tomaisons, probably produced for Marc Loliée in the 1950s.

Let's go back to the text presentation, which took up almost half a page in a catalogue of more than 630 issues, and which we wouldn't be able to improve and : "Extraordinary short story by the brilliant German poet. The Visionary is a story à la Cagliostro, a succession of bizarre and terrifying adventures. One is perpetually surprised and fascinated, and often in doubt as to whether these adventures can be explained by natural means, because suddenly a new incident throws the story back into the supernatural. In the perfection of its details and the quality of its style, Le Visionnaire surpasses the best fantasy novels that it preceded and inspired. In fact, it was much imitated. This terrible story, in which we meet a Sicilian adventurer and a Russian officer with a strange physiognomy, among other motley characters, and in which two ghosts appear, accompanied by the most mysterious phenomena, in an extraordinary magic session, remained the model, the nec plus ultra of the genre. Phenomena that were later explained by machinery, sleight of hand and other trickery. The magical characters resemble Cagliostro and Saint-Germain. The whole story has a striking Radcliffian allure."

VERY RARE.