“PROFOUND OBSERVATION OF HUMAN NATURE IN ITS COMPLEXITY AND IN ITS FOIBLES”

MOLIERE. Oeuvres Completes. Paris: Garnier Freres, 1863. Seven volumes. Royal octavo, contemporary three-quarter red morocco gilt, elaborately gilt-decorated spines with green morocco onlays, raised bands, marbled boards and endpapers, top edges gilt. $2800.

“Nouvelle édition,” with frontispiece portrait in Volume I and numerous fine steel-engraved plates throughout, very handsomely bound.

"Molière may be said to have created modern French comedy by giving it a serious basis, where there had previously been little but farces and comedies of intrigue… His genius lay in his ability to combine profound observation of human nature in its complexity and in its foibles with the power of presenting these in their amusing aspect" (Harvey & Heseltine, 487). Edited with notes, bibliography and a life of Moliere by Louis Moland.

Interiors generally clean, morocco bindings quite lovely.