"RESTORED TO FRENCH POETRY A LYRICISM WHICH HAD BEEN LOST FOR CENTURIES"

LAMARTINE, Alphonse de. Graziella. Paris: Le Livre Français, 1926. Octavo, contemporary full morocco, raised bands, elaborately gilt decorated boards and dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Housed in matching blue slipcase. $300.

Lovely deluxe edition of Lamartine’s masterpiece, beautifully bound. Number 1839 of 4000 copies printed on papier vélin du marais.

Originally published in 1849, Graziella is a love story, based on Lamartine's encounter with an Italian girl he met while visiting Naples. Lamartine's "melodious, plaintive verses, in which nature is used to reflect the poet's moods… restored to French poetry a lyricism which had been lost for centuries. The French, who had recently discovered Byron, now had a gentler Byron of their own, one whose gloom never turned to revolt and who called from his misery on God and not on Satan" (Reid, 330). "[M]uch of subsequent French poetry constitutes a theft… from Lamartine" (Hollier, 631). Text in French.

Only minor toning to spine. A beautiful, near-fine copy.