113 - GEFFROY (Gustave). *L’Enfermé*. Paris: Fasquelle, 1897. In-12, red half-maroquine, decorated spine, corners, untrimmed, cover and spine preserved (Lavaux).

GEFFROY (Gustave). *L’Enfermé*. Paris: Fasquelle, 1897. In-12, red half-maroquine, decorated spine, corners, untrimmed, cover and spine preserved (Lavaux). FIRST EDITION, decorated with a mask of Blanqui (1805–1881) etched by Félix Bracquemond - ONE OF 15 NUMBERED COPIES ON HOLLAND PAPER (No. 2) - from a large-format print run. This is the first comprehensive study devoted to Auguste Blanqui, a communist activist and theorist, whom Marx considered in 1879 to be the man most capable of “carrying on the proletarian party and leading it in the pursuit of political power.” Sentenced to death four times, Blanqui spent 39 years in prison, hence the book’s title. This copy is accompanied by an important autograph letter signed by Blanqui (2 pp., in-8, dated August 28, 1865), concerning the arbitrary extension of his detention: “Every legal sentence expires… I must not go any further. To submit to a flagrant illegality, when one can escape it—even at the cost of exile—is to legitimize it...” A VERY BEAUTIFUL COPY, PERFECTLY BOUND.