Le Masque, ou Anecdotes particulières du Chevalier de***. Amsterdam, Pierre Mortier, 1750.
First Edition. 12mo (160 x 92 mm), pp. [vi], 205, with the half-title, in contemporary calf, blind rule to covers, spine with raised bands, gilt in compartments with red morocco label lettered in gilt, red edges, marbled endpapers, green silk marker.
A scarce novel telling of the adventures of an impressionable young man who, on the death of his father, comes to Paris to seek his fortune and enlist in the army. His mind full of romances and fairy tales, he immediately falls in love with his aunt by marriage, who is the only person in Paris to offer him any help and who, miraculously, falls for him with an equally fiery passion. The rest of the novel recounts his various adventures in the army and in fashionable Paris society. Olimpe, the aunt, pops in and out of the narrative throughout, but so do numerous other sirens, most notably cousin Emilie. This is the first work by the marquis du Terrail, lieutenant general of Verdun. He wrote one other novel, La Princesse de Gonsague, 1756, and a tragedie called Lagus, roi d'Egypte, 1754, as well as publishing his plans for the erection of statues of Louis XIV, entitled Projet relatif à la noblesse, au militaire et à l'établissement de deux places pour les statues équestre et pédestre de S. M. Louis XIV, 1750.
Outside Continental Europe, OCLC lists Cambridge, Bodleian, Yale, UCLA and NYPL.
Cioranescu 27207; Gay III, 77; Jones p. 105.