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A revolutionary work

[CHARRIERE, Madame Isabelle de, (or: Belle van ZUYLEN)].
Lettres écrites de Lausanne.

Many woodcut head and tail pieces.

Many woodcut head and tail pieces.

Many woodcut head and tail pieces.

Many woodcut head and tail pieces.



Genève et Paris, Prault, 1788. 2 parts in 1 vol. 8vo. Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt with ornamental vases and red morocco title-label. Many woodcut head and tail pieces. (4), 118, (2); (2), 148, (4) pp.

Rare fifth edition of these famous Lettres de Lausanne published together in one volume as in the third edition of 1787 by the same publisher. The only difference with the third edition is the fact that there are new preliminaries in our edition. The first part had appeared as the Lettres écrites de Lausanne. Premier partie, in 1785. The second part was first published in 1787 as Caliste, ou suite des lettres éctrites de Lausanne. The lettres were written by the Dutch female author Belle van Zuylen, who was internationally known as Isabelle de Charrière (1740-1805). She was born near Utrecht at Slot Zuylen, a castle at the river Vecht.
Belle van Zuylen's brilliant artistic personality was extremely versatile. She wrote novels, pamphlets, poetry and libretti. She also painted striking miniature portraits and played the harpsichord, pianoforte and the harp. Among the many suitors she had - among whom the well known Benjamin Constant, she chose Charles-Emmanuel de Charrière (1735-1808), a Swiss, to marry in 1771 and the couple settled in Colombier, close to Neuchâtel in Switzerland, where she died in December 1805. Belle van Zuylen still stayed for longer or shorter periods in Lausanne and Neuchâtel. From these periods, two of her most famous publications arose: the Lettres de Lausanne and before that in 1784 the Lettres Neuchâteloises. The work was rather 'revolutionary' for its time, mainly because of the fact that they were written by a woman who had many intellectual contacts all over Europe, including celebrities as Mozart, Rameau, Rousseau, Cimarosa, Boswell a.o., and because of the fact that they are written in a clear and pure style telling, in a charmingly and plain way, about the French-Swiss way of life of that time. She is known as one of the most pure authors, in style and in spirit, of French literature.

Beautiful copy with bookplate of Mr. Sanloz de Bospin on inside frontcover.- (Some occasional browning).
Hoefer X, 14-5; Courtney, A prelim bibliogr. (1980), 4e(1-2) with ill. of both titles; this edition not in Cioranescu; NUC lists no copies of this edition.

Related Subjects: French  Literature 

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