BARBEY D’AUREVILLY Jules La Bague d’Annibal.

Carteret, I, 102 ; Clouzot, 37 ; Vicaire, I, 289.

First edition, very rare.

Printed in 150 copies, this is one of 25 on Hollande (second paper, after 15 on coloured paper).

Edited and dedicated to Trébutien, a great friend of Barbey's, this book tells the author's love story. This is an early work, written in the mid-1830s, and the second to be published, apart from the short story Léa, which appeared in the short-lived Revue de Caen in 1832, and Aux héros des Thermopyles, an adolescent poem published in 1825.

La Bague d'Annibal consists of 151 epigram-like stanzas. Its author's dandyism is more clearly asserted here than in L'Amour impossible, published in 1841.

This copy has an added autograph note written in red ink and addressed to the publisher Levy about a work of poetry by Henry Murger : "Je prie monsieur Lévy de vouloir bien m'envoyer les vers (Nuits d'hiver, je crois) de H. Murger et sa Vie de Bohème. J'en rendrai compte. Mille gracieux compliments. Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly".

Fine copy.

Provenance: Charles de Mandre(1805-1875) – bookplate and armorial binding. Charles de Mandre was General Councillor of Haute-Saône from 1839 to 1871, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ronchamp collieries, Knight of Malta, Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1858 and Mayor of Aillevillers (Haute-Saône) from 1865 to 1871. His library was sold in 1887, and our example is no. 698 in the Catalogue des livres et autographes composant la bibliothèque de feu M. Ch. de Mandre.