176 - [LE ROY DE LOZEMBRUNE, François-Candide]. A Portrait of the Customs of a Philosophical Century, or The Story of Justine de Saint-Val.

[LE ROY DE LOZEMBRUNE, François-Candide]. A Portrait of the Customs of a Philosophical Century, or The Story of Justine de Saint-Val. First edition of this epistolary novel, complete with its three engravings and preserved in a contemporary cardboard binding adorned with neoclassical decoration. Manheim and Paris, published by C. Fontaine and by the Widow Duchesne, 1786. 2 parts in 1 in-12 volume (186 x 116 mm), Bradel-style cardboard binding in yellow paper, smooth spine decorated with a compartmentalized black design featuring a handwritten cartouche in black ink and a numbering cartouche, large neoclassical black decoration on the covers: two friezes framing an oval medallion depicting a bust of a philosopher in the classical style in profile, untrimmed. 160 and 220 pp., 2 frontispieces, and one out-of-text engraving. Spine sun-faded with crazing, cap bands missing, edges browned, rare small foxing spots. A rare first edition of this epistolary novel, published anonymously. Its provocative tone and uncompromising social commentary led Quérard to attribute it to Rétif de La Bretonne, a comparison that reveals the audacity of the narrative. The illustrations include two charming frontispieces and a separate engraving attributed to Louis Binet (1744–1800). A military man by training and tutor to the Archdukes of Austria, François-Candide Le Roy de Lozembrune (1751–1801) uses Justine’s tragic fate to denounce a world where the strong crush the weak under the guise of freedom and reason, thereby offering a critique of Enlightenment philosophy. The ordeal of this virtuous heroine strikingly foreshadows *Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue*, which the Marquis de Sade would publish five years later, in 1791. A fresh copy, in its original period cardboard binding.