133 - HALEVY, Ludovic. *L'Abbé Constantin*.

HALEVY, Ludovic. *L'Abbé Constantin*. Paris, Boussod, Valadon et Cie, 1887. In-4 (32 x 25 cm), chocolate-colored half-maroquin with corner caps, ribbed spine decorated with mosaic panels, owner’s initials L.B. in full. Gilded head. Cover preserved (without the spine). Binding signed “P. Ruban” on the upper endpaper. 136 pp. Traces of moisture on the leather of the upper cover. A luxurious, illustrated edition in large quarto format of the author’s most famous novel, featuring 36 illustrations by the painter Madeleine Lemaire (1845–1928), including 18 large, full-page plates with captions beneath scrollwork, the others as page headers and end-piece illustrations. Printed on vellum. "A very wealthy American woman has purchased the Château de Longueval. She has a sister whom two young men from the village are courting: one because he is deeply in love, the other because her mother wants the château. Father Constantin will set everything right." Untrimmed copy, in a beautiful binding by Petrus Ruban, a master bookbinder of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.