253 - RICHEPIN, Jean, and STEINLEN. *La Chanson des gueux*. Complete Edition—*Dernières chansons* from my first book. First edition.

RICHEPIN, Jean, and STEINLEN. *La Chanson des gueux*. Complete Edition—*Dernières chansons* from my first book. First edition. The complete edition of *La Chanson des gueux* and the first edition of *Les Dernières chansons*, illustrated in their first printings with 252 and 24 Steinlen compositions, respectively, in beautiful matching full morocco bindings. Paris, Éditions d’Art Édouard Pelletan, 1910. 2 in-4 volumes (270 x 210 mm), each bound in full midnight blue morocco, ribbed spine adorned with the title and the author’s name in gold lettering, date at the foot, triple gilt fillet framing the covers, wide interior frieze, double gilt fillet at the edges, guilloché end caps, gilt head, untrimmed, covers and spine preserved, edged slipcase. 366 pages and 39 pages, 252 and 24 woodcut illustrations. Minor scuffing on the bindings, a tear with a small loss of leather on the spine of *La Chanson des gueux* and a fine slit at the upper hinge, slight wear on the slipcases. Unabridged edition of *La Chanson des gueux*, complete with a slang glossary, and first edition of *Les Dernières Chansons*, illustrated in the first printing with 252 and 25 original compositions by Steinlen, respectively, woodcuts in black by Ducourtioux. Print runs stated in the colophons as 340 and 330 copies, both volumes numbered on Marais-made vellum and signed by the publisher (no. 184), and accompanied by the publication prospectus (4 illustrated folios, bound at the beginning for the first volume and at the end for the second). [Carteret, Illustrés, IV, p. 341]. Jean Richepin (1849–1926), a leading figure of the literary bohemian scene, shook up 19th-century bourgeois society by publishing *La Chanson des gueux* in 1876, a subversive work written in the slang of the suburbs that would earn him a high-profile trial and a stint in prison. For this superb 1910 edition, his lyrical verve meets the pencil of Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (1859–1923), an iconic illustrator of Parisian street life and the city’s fringes who captured the world of vagabonds and outcasts without any sensationalism. From the library of the painter Paul Goute (1860–1943), with his bookplate on the blank endpapers of both volumes. A delightful set in fine condition, bound uniformly.