“THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL WORK HE EVER PUBLISHED”: EXCEEDINGLY RARE FIRST OBTAINABLE EDITION IN FRENCH OF PAINE’S LE SIÈCLE DE LA RAISON (AGE OF REASON, PART I), PUBLISHED IN PARIS IN MARCH 1794 AS PAINE REMAINED IMPRISONED ON THE ORDER OF ROBESPIERRE, TOGETHER IN ONE VOLUME WITH THE SCARCE 1793 EDITION IN FRENCH OF PAINE’S LE SENS COMMUN (COMMON SENSE)

PAINE, Thomas. Le siècle de la raison. Traduit de l’Anglais de Thomas Paine… Par F. Lanthenas. BOUND WITH: Le sense commun, Adressé aux habitans de l’Amérique… Traduit sur la dernièr edition, publiée a Londres, par l’Auteur. Paris: Gueffier / Buisson, [1794], 1793. Octavo, 19th-century three-quarter brown sheep, red morocco spine label, marbled boards.

Rare first obtainable edition in French of Paine’s Le siècle de la raison (Age of Reason, Part I), expanded and revised by Paine—“rendering obsolete the first edition”—this exceptionally rare edition issued coincident with the first edition in English (both Paris issue) and preceding the first American edition, handed in manuscript to his friend Barlow as Paine, arrested on the order of Robespierre, was “en route to the Luxembourg Prison on December 18, 1793,” issued only one year after the shorter and virtually unobtainable 1793 edition, of which there is likely only one “surviving copy” (Gimbel-Paine, 25), handsomely bound in one volume with the scarce third edition in French, Paris issue, of Paine’s Le sens commun (Common Sense, 1776), a work that is “by far the most influential tract of the American Revolution” (Covenanted People).

Le siècle de la raison (Age of Reason: Part I) was written in early 1793 by Paine, who, though once hailed by the French as “as a true ally in the cause of liberté, égalité, fraternité… became disillusioned by the increasing violence of the revolution. When Paine declared his opposition to the execution of Louis XVI, he placed his own life in imminent danger” (Jacoby, Freethinkers). By the first week of March, with the French Revolution descending into tyranny, Paine turned over his manuscript for the initial pamphlet of this work to “François Lanthenas, who had undertaken the work of translation and publication… The printed version that appeared later that month as Le siècle de la raison proved to be the most controversial work he ever published. Much mystery still surrounds the first edition of the pamphlet. This is partly because only one incomplete copy has survived, thanks to the small print run and the absentmindedness of posterity. The mystery is deepened by the effective measures to prevent its circulation… by Georges Couthon and his close associate Robespierre… The enigma is further compounded by the odd title page of the [initial] pamphlet. Perhaps because of a printer’s error, or (more likely) because… Paine wanted to remain anonymous, Le siècle de la raison lists the translator Lanthenas as the author… During the spine-chilling events of October 1793, Paine became obsessed with the task of considerably revising the already-published manuscript and republishing it under his name as a book containing several new chapters and a dedication, in effect rendering obsolete the first edition, something he had never done before.” Translator Lanthenas confirms that after he submitted the translation of the initial pamphlet, Couthon “seemed offended with me for having translated this work” (Keane, 389-90). At year’s end Paine, in peril for opposing the execution of Louis XVI and racing to complete this expanded and revised edition, was arrested at the order of Robespierre. He “barely managed to deliver the manuscript to his friend Joel Barlow, who was also a close friend of Jefferson’s, while en route to the Luxembourg Prison on December 28, 1793” (Jacoby). “While Paine was imprisoned, Barlow had the work published, now known as Part I of The Age of Reason, both in an English and a French edition (translated by Lanthenas) about the 11th of March [1794]” (Gimbel-Yale 88). In prison Paine was struck down with a life-threatening illness and miraculously escaped the executioner’s blade. His release, however, did not come until November 5, 1794, when the American government finally exerted its influence to free Paine.

While the French reaction to this seminal work remains undocumented, it “was extraordinarily successful in Britain and America… In England Age of Reason rapidly became a bestseller, in spite of the government’s decision to prosecute any bookseller that would circulate it… In the United States, demand was even more frenetic… Although Paine’s work had originally been composed to keep the French from ‘running headlong into atheism,’ it was immediately referred to, in the English-speaking world, as the ‘Devil’s Prayer-Book’ or ‘the Bible of Atheism.’ Age of Reason was not the first critique of the Biblical text to be published during the Age of Enlightenment, but it was the first one to have been written in such simple and direct language, larded with wit, humor, verve, cheek… a clever mixture of popular common sense and scientific analysis that could be easily grasped by the mass of ordinary people….” (Vincent, Transatlantic Republican, 14-15). “As a Deist and a republican writer and activist… Thomas Paine personified the Age of Reason” (Jack Fruchtman, Jr.).

This exceedingly rare first obtainable edition in French of Le siècle de la raison is bound in one volume with the third edition in French, Paris issue, of Le sens commun (Common Sense). “It is not too much to say that the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, was due more to Paine’s Common Sense than to any one other single piece of writing” (Grolier American 100:14). In the winter of 1775-1776, Paine, “who had just arrived in the colonies, published a pamphlet that ignited the American drive for independence… In a crisp, vigorous style, Paine told Americans what they had been waiting to hear. In a few short pages he summarized the case against the institution of monarchy and presented an argument for American independence that was elegantly yet so simply stated that it could be understood by nearly every American. Common Sense was by far the most influential tract of the American Revolution, and it remains one of the most brilliant pamphlets ever written in the English language” (A Covenanted People 27). First obtainable edition in French of Le siècle de la raison (Age of Reason), issued the same year as the first edition in English (Barrois: Paris issue), no priority established. Found printed on thick paper, on thin paper, or with both thick and thin paper (this copy): no priority established. Precedes the first American and first English editions. Preceded by the 1793 edition in French, which “was so effectually suppressed that an entry for it appears in Quérard, where the title is given as Lâge de la raison” (OCLC ). In Gimbel’s listing of a single copy of that elusive 1793 edition, he calls it “probably only surviving copy” (25). Third edition in French, Paris issue, of Le sens commun (Common Sense, 1776). With half title; Table des chapitres. Preceded by the 1776 first edition in French, Rotterdam issue, and the 1791, 1793 editions in French, Paris issue, by Gueffier, which were the first editions in French to be published in Paris. Text in French. Le siècle de la raison: Gimbel-Yale 88; Gimbel-Paine:22, 25. See Gimbel-Yale 87; Gimbel-Paine:23-25. OCLC lists 9 copies: including Yale, Harvard and the American Philosophical Society. Le sens commun: Gimbel CS-79. Howes P17. Gimbel-Paine:57. Sabin 58217. See Gimbel CS-54, CS-64, CS-65; Sabin 58216; Evans 14959; Adams, American Independence 222a; Adams 76-107a, 76-107i; Goldmiths 11440; Kress 7239. OCLC lists 5 copies: including the American Philosophical Society and Yale. Bookplate. German library inkstamp. Faint notations to front free endpaper.

Text fresh with only light scattered foxing, small closed marginal tear to one leaf (C6), faint occasional marginal dampstaining. A most important and highly desirable near-fine volume of these two seminal Paine works.