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Nathaniel Hawthorne's set of Voltaire's novels.
Details
Romans de Voltaire, 1800
Nathaniel Hawthorne's set of Voltaire's novels.
[HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel (1804-1864).] – VOLTAIRE (1694-1798). Romans de Voltaire. Paris: Didot, 1800.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's set of Voltaire's novels. Voltaire's influence on Hawthorne is most apparent in "The Christmas Banquet," but Hawthorne was a fan also of French novels generally. He is reported to have read Balzac's oeuvre in its entirety. The first volume bears the original pink printed bookseller's ticket for a seller of "Foreign Books" at 35 Washington Street in Boston. This is also the volume that contains Voltaire's Candide. This is a stereotype edition, in small format and relatively inexpensive, but quite elegantly bound. It strikes the perfect balance for a cosmopolitan Yankee like Hawthorne. See Davidson, Frank. "Voltaire and Hawthorne's Christmas Banquet." In: Boston Public Library Quarterly, 3, 1951, pp. 244ff.
Three volumes, 12mo (133 x 175mm). Half-titles. (Vol. 2 with some gutter dampstain at ends.) Contemporary calf gilt, spines gilt and with red and green morocco lettering and numbering pieces, all edges gilt (neatly rebacked with spines laid down, rubbed, faint erasures near Hawthorne signature in vol. 1); modern clamshell box. Provenance: Nathaniel Hawthorne (ownership signature "Nath: Hawthorne" on all three front free endpaper versos).
Nathaniel Hawthorne's set of Voltaire's novels.
[HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel (1804-1864).] – VOLTAIRE (1694-1798). Romans de Voltaire. Paris: Didot, 1800.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's set of Voltaire's novels. Voltaire's influence on Hawthorne is most apparent in "The Christmas Banquet," but Hawthorne was a fan also of French novels generally. He is reported to have read Balzac's oeuvre in its entirety. The first volume bears the original pink printed bookseller's ticket for a seller of "Foreign Books" at 35 Washington Street in Boston. This is also the volume that contains Voltaire's Candide. This is a stereotype edition, in small format and relatively inexpensive, but quite elegantly bound. It strikes the perfect balance for a cosmopolitan Yankee like Hawthorne. See Davidson, Frank. "Voltaire and Hawthorne's Christmas Banquet." In: Boston Public Library Quarterly, 3, 1951, pp. 244ff.
Three volumes, 12mo (133 x 175mm). Half-titles. (Vol. 2 with some gutter dampstain at ends.) Contemporary calf gilt, spines gilt and with red and green morocco lettering and numbering pieces, all edges gilt (neatly rebacked with spines laid down, rubbed, faint erasures near Hawthorne signature in vol. 1); modern clamshell box. Provenance: Nathaniel Hawthorne (ownership signature "Nath: Hawthorne" on all three front free endpaper versos).
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