HALÉVY (Ludovic). Madame and Monsieur Cardinal. The Dream. The Trumpeter's Horse. The Last Chapter. When one waits for his masses. The Story of a Ball Dress. Antoinette. Niniche. The Little Quail with a Feather. The Insurgent. Mistingue and Lenglumé. - The Little Cardinals. Madame Canivet. Mr. Cardinal's Program. Pauline Cardinal. Virginie Cardinal. The Fireworks. The Penelope. During the Riot. Regenerated. A Parisian budget. The Black Ball. At the Opera. Paris : Calmann Lévy, [1872]-1880. - 2 works in two volumes in-18, 187 x 123 : (4 ff. first blank), 275 pp, (2 ff. last blank), printed cover ; (3 ff.), 256 pp, (1 f.), printed cover. Blue half-maroquin with corners, gilt fillets, spine gilt, untrimmed, cover preserved, slipcase (Lansgelin). First edition of the first two volumes that Ludovic Halévy devoted to the Cardinal family. "We owe [...] to M. Ludovic Halévy an incomparable creation: that of the Cardinal family, where a type of imbecile freethinker, of idiot Voltairian, of ridiculous Freemason, of noble father living solemnly on the gallantries of his two daughters, who in silliness, in nonsense, in puffed-up haughtiness, exceeds by a hundred cubits Flaubert's Homais, and Henri Monnier's Joseph Prudhomme [...But experienced men [...] will have the pleasure, while laughing, of noting to what degree of stultification and unconscious immorality "an enemy of the Jesuits" can descend, - that is to say, one of those narrow-minded beings who feed daily on the clichés and commonplaces of free thought. (Polybiblion: revue bibliographique universelle, 1882, p. 296). Madame et monsieur Cardinal consists of 12 short stories. The edition is illustrated with 12 black vignettes by Edmond Morin. One of the 50 numbered copies on Hollande paper (n° 27), including a suite of figures on chine. This one is enriched with a portrait of the author in 3 states, an engraved portrait of Edmond Morin, 2 original watercolours on japon paper, one signed by H. de Sta, the other by Henry Somm, as well as a plate and two vignettes engraved by Jules-Louis Massard after Emile Mas. Les Petites Cardinal also includes 12 short stories and 12 vignettes by Henri Maigrot. One of the 50 copies on Hollande paper (n° 25), including a suite on chine of the vignettes. This copy is enriched with an engraved portrait of the author, an etching by Abot after Émile Mas printed on japon, as well as 5 vignettes engraved by Jules-Louis Massard after Émile Mas, a L.A.S. from the author addressed to Henri Maigrot, 1 1/2 page in-16 with envelope, and another one from Émile Aucante, from Calmann Lévy, to Henri Maigrot, 1 page in-12, also with its envelope Beautiful copies uniformly bound by Lansgelin. Spines slightly faded. Attached, by the same author : - La Famille Cardinal. Paris : Calmann Lévy, 1883. - Small in-8, 180 x 127 : frontispiece, (2 ff.), 210 pp, (1 f.), 8 plates, printed cover. Purple morocco, framed with gilt fillets and fleurons on the boards, spine decorated with gilt motifs and a gilt iron representing a dancer in the centre, inner gilt lace, gilt edges, cover and spine preserved, case (P. Affolter 1911). First edition of this famous novel by Ludovic Halévy, featuring the Cardinal family, printed at 250 copies. This one, not numbered, is one of the 200 on Marais laid paper, including a frontispiece and 8 out-of-text vignettes engraved by Emile Mas after Jules-Louis Massard. A very nice copy bound by Affolter, very well preserved despite the slightly faded spine.