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"Piracy, Banditry and Disorder"
Bewitching Beauty Inflames Desires
Uncut, in the Original Printed Wrappers
SAND, George. Le Piccinino. Paris: Desessart, Éditeur, 1847.
First edition. Five octavo volumes (9 1/16 x 5 7/16 inches; 231 x 139 mm.). [4], 315, [1, blank], [1, "Table"], [3, blank] (final blank leaf pasted to rear pastedown); [4], 301, [1, blank], [1, "Table"], [1, blank]; [4], 307, [1, "Table"]; 308, [1, "Table"], [3, blank] (final blank leaf pasted to rear pastedown); [4, advertisements], [4], 318, [1, "Table], [1, blank] pp.
Uncut, in the original yellow printed wrappers. Advertisements on rear wrappers. Spines chipped in places and a little darkened. Some light foxing and edge browning, as usual. An excellent copy. Each volume housed in a marbled board slipcase and the five volumes housed together in two quarter blue morocco clamshell cases.
Astonishingly, only one copy of this novel featuring "piracy, banditry and disorder" (Jacinta Wright, Reinventing the Bandit: George Sand's "Piccinino", 1846. George Sand et l'empire des lettres. Anne McCall, editor. Presses universitaires du nouveau monde., pp51-62, 2004) has come to auction within the last thirty-five years.
Le Piccinino is the tale of a bewitching Sicilian princess whose beauty inflames the desires of everyone she encounters, whether artist, noble, commoner, or bandit.
"Nothing could be more charming than her tales of mystery, intrigue, and adventureLe Piccinino [et al] - these things have all the spontaneous inventiveness of the romances of Alexander Dumas, his open-air quality, his pleasure in a story for a story's sake..." (Henry James, Literary Criticism: French Writers, p. 730).
On April 16, 1847, Chopin wrote to his family: "her new romance entitled (thus far) Piccinino (which means: little). The action takes place on Sicily. Many lovely things; I do not doubt that it will be more to Ludwika's liking than [Sand's] Lucretia, which also aroused less enthusiasm among others hereA great deal of naturalness, of poetry, I remember what a pleasure it was to listen to her reading it" (Fryderyk ChopinCalendary).
George Sand (pen name of Amandine Lucie Aurore Dupin, Baronne Dudevant, 1804-1876) " was as famous for her unfeminine' independence, her habit of wearing men's clothes, and her love affairs with such prominent artistic figures as Alfred de Musset and Frédéric Chopin, as for her writings. In 1831 she left her husband, Baron Dudevant. Her work is usually divided into three distinct periods, the first of which, intensely romantic, corresponds to her affair with MussetThe novels of this period plead the right of free love for both men and women, and include such works as Indiana [1832], Lélia (1833), and Valentine (1832). During the next decade George Sand became interested in various humanitarian reform movements and published such works as Consuelo (1842) and Le Meunier d'Angibault (1845). Her last group of novels, sentimental studies of nature and of rustic manners, includes La Mare au diable (1846), La Petite Fadette (1848), and François le Champi (1850)" (Benét's Reader's Encyclopedia).
Vicaire VII, col. 231. Not in Carteret.
Price: $3,500
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