242 - RESTIF DE LA BRETONNE, Nicolas-Edme. *Les Provinciales* [*The Year of the National Ladies*].

RESTIF DE LA BRETONNE, Nicolas-Edme. *Les Provinciales* [*The Year of the National Ladies*]. Paris, J.B. Garnery, 1796. In-12 (17.5 x 11 cm), Bradel binding, navy blue percaline, smooth spine. Modern binding. pp. 3228–3825. Spine worn, paper yellowed, some foxing and water stains. Untrimmed. Second edition (with a modified title) of the twelfth and final volume of *L'Année des dames nationales*, one of Restif de La Bretonne’s most important works on the history of social mores during the Revolution. Comprising 12 volumes—one for each month of the year—this novel of manners consists of nearly 600 stories, a veritable melting pot of literary inspiration, as noted by bibliographers: “all containing strange events and suitable for providing playwrights with subjects for plays of every genre.” The work, which features many famous women of the Revolutionary era, is brimming with anecdotes and highly colorful details that Restif drew primarily from the Marquis de la Grange, a former officer of the Musketeers, who attended the Countess de Beauharnais’s literary suppers every Friday. “There, around three o’clock in the morning, the marquis would begin recounting the secret anecdotes of the courts of Louis XV and Louis XVI.” In order to obtain authentic information about each of France’s provinces, Restif also had his publishers write to people in characteristic towns to gather “all the details concerning the women and girls of that town…”. He thus received 500 specific responses, which he adapted into his short stories. The original was published between 1791 and 1794.