167 - MARIVAUX. *L'École des mères*.

MARIVAUX. *L'École des mères*. Paris, Pierre Prault, 1732. In-12 (16 x 9.5 cm), green half-basane, spine decorated with fleurons. 61 pp. Covers scuffed, paper yellowed. First edition. A one-act comedy in prose, first performed by the Comédiens Italiens at the Théâtre de l’Hôtel de Bourgogne in July 1732. The play follows in the tradition of Marivaux’s comedies devoted to emotional education and parental authority: Angélique, a young woman raised in seclusion by a tyrannical mother who has chosen an elderly suitor for her, Damis, secretly meets the young Éraste, with whom she falls in love. The mother finds herself caught in her own trap: believing she was shaping her daughter to be ignorant of matters of the heart, she has only made her more vulnerable to the first stirrings of love. A reflection on the relationship between mother and daughter, and on the perverse effects of an upbringing based on coercion. A beautiful copy bound in the 19th century.