SADE, Donatien-Alphonse-François, marquis de
Justine ou les malheurs de la vertu
In Holland [Paris], Chez les libraires associés [Girouard], 1791
A BEAUTIFUL COPY OF JUSTINE, FIRST BOOK OF THE MARQUIS DE SADE, RARE IN CONTEMPORARY BINDING
FIRST EDITION
Two volumes bound in one in-8 volume (195 x 115mm). With the false title for volume II, the edition does not include one for volume I. Engraved vignette on the title pages with the inscription "eternity", a woodcut headband on volume I. The work is dedicated to my good friend, in fact Sade's companion: Marie-Constance Quesnet, a modest actress met on August 25, 1790. The copy is presented as always without the publisher's notice and the Explanation of the frontispiece, of which only three copies are known today, including the one in the former Nordmann collection
COLLATION : (I) : π1 A4 B-S8 T2 ; (II) : π2 A-M8
ILLUSTRATION : frontispiece drawn by Chéry and engraved by Carrée representing "La Vertu entre la Luxure et l'Irréligion".
BINDING OF THE TIME. brown calf, smooth spine with gilt decoration, edges slightly spotted
CORRECTION: PART OF SPINE EDGE OF TOP COVER MISSING AND COVER DAMAGED
PROVENANCE: L. Hermant (19th century armorial bookplate)
Some restorations at the corners and at the head cover, hinges cracked and fragile. Faint foxing in the lower margin of book K of vol. I, small marginal paper loss on ff. L5.6 of vol. II without any damage to the text
The publication of Justine coincides with Sade's release after twelve years of imprisonment in the Bastille. He wrote this first book during his stay in prison, and had it published clandestinely by Girouard. The caption under the frontispiece quotes a line from Œdipe chez Admète, a tragedy by Ducis (1778): "Who knows, when Heaven strikes us with its blows, if the greatest misfortune is not a good for us". This verse echoes the great and famous formula taken from a Fragment of Euripides, standard of the skepticism, which one finds at the same time in Montaigne and Calderón de la Barca: "Who knows if our life is not death, and if to die is not to live in Hell". Restif de la Bretonne will write in his Anti-Justine in 1798: "[Sade] presents the delights of love, for men, only accompanied by torments, even death for women". A later in-12 edition was printed the same year. The Revolution had abolished the censorship in January 1791. The work shocked so much that it was restored.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Cohen-de Ricci, col. 919-920 -- Pia, col. 724
