“TO REMAIN UNTIL DEATH YOUR DOG WHO LOVES YOU, WHOM YOU MAY BEAT, AND WHO CARESSES YOU PASSIONATELY”

DAUDET, Alphonse. Sapho: Parisian Customs. Translated by T. F. Rogerson. Philadelphia: George Barrie & Sons, (1897). Octavo, contemporary three-quarter brown morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spine, raised bands, top edge gilt. $400.

Limited edition, number 970 of 1000 copies on Japanese vellum paper, with ten etchings by Eugene Abot and Albert Duvivier in double suite, with one of each suite on India paper, and drawings by Stanislas Rejchan.

First published in France in 1884, Daudet’s novel is “the history of two lovers whose relationship is continually broken off and renewed … For a time [Daudet] was a leading naturaliste, writing with the care for documentation typical of the movement, but his work comes alive by his gift for vivid, impressionistic description and because his naturalism never excluded the warm, poetic, fantasy-loving side of his character” (Harvey & Heseltine, 188).

Light rubbing to spine. Near-fine condition.