3 - ADELINE, Jules. *La Bouille’s Journey by Sea and Land*. A Historical Novel.

ADELINE, Jules. *La Bouille’s Journey by Sea and Land*. A Historical Novel. Rouen, E. Augé, 1877. in-8 (22 x 15.5 cm), tan calfskin, ribbed spine decorated with panels (contemporary binding). viii-(3)-xi-49 pp. Binding shows some wear. A luxurious and rare edition printed on fine laid paper of this satirical and humorous 18th-century French tale. An anonymous work first published in 1752. This edition is illustrated with separate etchings by Jules Adeline. A parody of the great travelogues and accounts of maritime exploration of the era. The narrator describes, with epic grandiloquence and comical seriousness, a journey that turns out to be, in reality, minuscule. The “journey” consists simply of traveling down the Seine from Rouen to the small village of La Bouille, located only about twenty kilometers downstream. The choice of this village is no coincidence. La Bouille was the mandatory stopover for travelers and goods moving between Rouen, the sea, and the capital. The daily boat connections there fostered a lively, folkloric atmosphere that lent itself wonderfully to literary caricature.