Tableaux de la Bonne Compagnie de Versailles et de Paris; ou Traits caractéristiques, Anecdotes secretes, Politiques, Morales & Littéraires, recueillies dans les Sociétés du bon ton, pendant les Années 1786 & 1787. Par M. le Ch. de B***. Tome Premier [-Second]. Paris, tous les Marchands de Nouveautés, 1787.
Third Edition. 8vo, (197 x 112 mm), pp. [ii], [3]-198; [ii], [3]-176, tear on E2 (pp. 67-8) through the page number but with no loss, in contemporary mottled calf, rubbed at extremities, spine gilt in compartments, brown morocco label lettered in gilt, head and foot of spine chipped, marbled endpapers, red edges.
A delightful and vivid portrayal of the salons and artistic haunts of Paris society. Presented in a series of short chapters, with plentiful dialogue, short anecdotes and lively descriptions, the subjects covered include a music lesson, a scene in a café, an evening at the Tuilleries, the opera, a ball, a visit to the doctor, a supper party, dreams, rebels, springtime and ‘the real pleasures’ of life. The dedication is addressed ‘O Vous, Sexe charmant, qui savez tout embellier, malheureusement même jusqu’au vice... Les femmes sont chez nous les véritables précepteurs des hommes: elles aiment les sciences, les arts, les talens & les encouragent; elles veulent les trouver dans le cercle qui les entoure’.
Authorship of this work has been hotly contested over the years. Paul Lacroix, in his bibliography of Restif, not only attributed the work to Restif, but claimed it to be among his best writings: ‘Ce sont les plus agréables pages que Restif ait écrites, et tout ce que nous avons lu dans ce joli ouvrage est bien du Restif, de l’excellent Restif’ (Lacroix p. 334). Rives Child, on the other hand, states that the Tableaux are the work of the Prince de Ligne and adds, ‘Je ne vois absolument rien de Restif là-dedans. A mon avis, cet ouvrage fut écrit par quelqu’un qui a passé pas mal de temps au Pays-Bas, peut-être un diplomate français’ (Rives Child, Restif de la Bretonne, Témoignages et Jugements. Bibliographie, 1949, p. 312). In Cohen-de Ricci it is listed under Restif but with the proviso that all the chapters were not written by Restif. It has more recently been attributed to Stanislas Jean de Boufflers.
First published earlier in the same year, the work was originally intended to accompany a suite of plates by Moreau. These were reused in a number of later editions but were not included in the present edition, which has been entirely reset and which, unlike other editions, has no mention of plates on the title-page. The chapters of later editions also vary, but in this edition they are the same as listed by Lacroix for the first edition and all appear in the same order.
MMF 87:19; Jacob, Bibliographie et Iconographie de tous les ouvrages de Restif de la Bretonne, pp. 333-334; see Cohen-de Ricci 879 (under Restif).
OCLC lists this edition at the BN and Biblioteca Nacional de Espana.