"I HAVE SOUGHT TRUTH STRENUOUSLY. I HAVE MET HER BOLDLY"

FRANCE, Anatole. The Authorized English Translations of the Novels and Short Stories of Anatole France. Edited by Frederic Chapman. New York and London: Parke, Austin and Lipscomb, (1914). Nineteen volumes. Octavo, contemporary full blue morocco, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spines and covers with red floral inlays, red silk doublures, top edges gilt, uncut and mostly unopened. $3600.

Beautifully bound “Bergeret Edition,” number 1 of only 50 sets, of France’s novels and short stories, with over 40 full-page illustrations, a number by Auguste Leroux, who also illustrated Balzac, Stendahl, and Daudet.

"I have sought truth strenuously, I have met her boldly. I have never turned from her even when she wore an unexpected aspect." Nobel Prize-winner Anatole France is particularly known for "his graceful erudition, his love of beauty… his subtle, biting irony… his clarity of thought, and his elegant, melodious style" (Reid, 242). This beautifully bound limited edition of France's works includes The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (translated by Lafcadio Hearn), whose skeptical old scholar protagonist made France famous, At the Sign of the Reine Pédauque, in which France ridicules believers in the occult, Penguin Island, his famous satire on human nature, and The Opinions of Jérôme Coignard, which captures the atmosphere of the fin de siècle. Several frontispieces and plates excised.

A splendid set in fine condition, with spines toned to mellow brown and only minor scuffs to covers of first and last volumes.