454 - ALLAIS (Alphonse). *The Blaireau Affair*. Novel. Paris: Éditions de la Revue Blanche, 1899. In-18 format, [4] leaves. (including a blank first page) and 316 pp., green half-maroquin with corner pieces, spine with five raised bands, gilt title, date at the bottom, gilt fillet, gilt head, cover and spine preserved, in a slipcase with flaps (M. Blin). Spine very slightly sun-faded. A fine copy. With the AA stamp in red ink on the endpaper. Ex-libris with the initials CB, illustrated with a woodcock.

ALLAIS (Alphonse). *The Blaireau Affair*. Novel. Paris: Éditions de la Revue Blanche, 1899. In-18 format, [4] leaves. (including a blank first page) and 316 pp., green half-maroquin with corner pieces, spine with five raised bands, gilt title, date at the bottom, gilt fillet, gilt head, cover and spine preserved, in a slipcase with flaps (M. Blin). Spine very slightly sun-faded. A fine copy. With the AA stamp in red ink on the endpaper. Ex-libris with the initials CB, illustrated with a woodcock. First edition, featuring a long and amusing dedication to Tristan Bernard. The novel is based on “Innocent,” a vaudeville written with Alfred Capus and premiered at the Théâtre des Nouveautés in February 1896. The story was subsequently published as a serial under the title *L’Affaire Baliveau*, before being reworked for the book, with “Baliveau” becoming “Blaireau.” Through the misadventures of the poacher Blaireau, the victim of a miscarriage of justice, Allais delivers a particularly successful satire of the justice system, the bureaucracy, and the frenzy of public opinion. François Caradec, in his preface to the *Posthumous Works of Alphonse Allais* (1990), highlighted the resonance of the theme of judicial error in the midst of the Dreyfus Affair: The final title was chosen in 1898, and the book was published in 1899 by the Revue Blanche, run by the Natanson brothers, who were committed to the Dreyfusard cause.