328 - GUEULETTE (Thomas-Simon)

GUEULETTE (Thomas-Simon) Les Mille et un quart-d'heure, Tartar tales. New edition. Paris, chez les Libraires Associés, 1753. 3 volumes in 3 volumes in-12 half-fawn basane with small re-used vellum corners, decorated smooth spines (19th c. binding). [4]-420 pp; [4]-418 pp; [4]-382-[4] pp. Approbation et privilège à Guillaume Saugrain du 4 juin 1722, the list of associated booksellers is given on the verso of the faux-titre. From the printing house of D'Houry fils. This edition contains all 114 Tartar tales (Dufrenoy, l'Orient romanesque I-46-47; see also Carmen Ramirez's critical edition in Jean-françois Perrin, Gueulette, Contes vol. 1.) In these tales, Gueulette entrusts Beni-Eridoun with the task of entertaining the blind King Astracan with tales for a quarter of an hour each day, while awaiting the return of Abuderker, the king's physician and the storyteller's father, who has gone in search of the strange remedy that is to cure the sovereign of his blindness. If the young man fails to distract the blind man, he will pay for his failure with his life. The tales from Les Mille et un quart-d'heure are included in Mayer's Collection des Contes de fées, volumes 21-22.