PHILIPPE, Charles-Louis; Laurence Vail, transl; T.S. Eliot, preface

Bubu of Montparnasse

Paris: Crosby Continental Editions, 1932. First English Language Edition. 12mo (16cm). Printed thick paper wrappers; 218pp. Spine faded and toned, as usual, with just a faint remnant of title and publisher's logo visible. Otherwise, a quite attractive copy: there is a faint, shallow dampstain to upper 1/16" of margin of rear wrappe, else just light external soil, fresh and unmarked within. Easily Very Good, and better than usually seen. Preface by T.S. Eliot. In the publisher's series "Modern Masterpieces in English."

Philippe's best-known work, a novel of the Paris demimonde, originally published (in French) in 1900. In his Preface, Eliot writes: "There have been many novels of low life, of metropolitan vice and degradation. Novels of sentimentality, novels of satire, novels of indignation, novels of social reform, novels of prurience. Bubu de Montparnasse succeeds in being none of these...Philippe...is both compassionate and dispassionate; in his book we blame no one, we blame not even a 'social system'; and even the most virtuous, in reading it, may feel: I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word and deed."

Price: $200.00

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