MEMOIRES DE MADAME LA BARONNE DE BATTEVILLE; ou la Veuve parfaite.
Lyon: Pierre Vruyset Ponthus, 1766. First Edition. 12mo, pp. (2), 324. Bound in contemporary French calf, spine gilt in compartments. A very nice clean copy. Gay III, 133; Giraud 140; Mylne 66-29. Item #39576
A popular novelist and children's author, Madame Le Prince de Beaumont (1711-1780) was widely published in England and America as well as her native France. Coming from a large artistic family, she was taught at Rouen and when her unhappy marriage was annuled, she determined to supplement her meager income with her writings. In her earliest writings, she argues that women's natural qualities are superior to men. Shortly afterwards, she settled in London where she established a reputation as a governess and started the monthly magazine: Nouveau Magasin Francais aimed primarily at women. In 1758, she bought a house near Annecy, France where she lived until her death. In her "Instructions pour les jeunes Dames" (1764) she insists that women should not rely on men but on their own inner resources. Indeed, in this scarce epistolary novel, whose English translation (The Virtuous Widow) was published by Nourse in the same year, the author tells the story of a woman who married Le Baron de Batteville after thinking that her lover was dead. After the passing of 15 years. she and her daughter are saved from a fire by a mysterious stranger who turns out to be the old lover.
Price: $475.00