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A lovely copy of La Solle’s loosely entwined collection of short stories. A fairly traditional construct, La Solle’s ‘novel’ features three friends, one of whom is sent there for his health, rent a house at Passy and occupy themselves by telling each other stories. There is, however, a particular piquancy in the juxtaposition of the three characters: the narrator, the patient and the patient’s wife. The patient, Monsieur Dursilly, is a distinguished soldier of fifty-two who has been sent to Passy becaue of health problems caused by thirty-five years of soldiering and six months of marriage. His wife is young and pretty. The narrator is invited to Passy by the husband and persuaded to go by the wife. ‘Je connoissois tous mes torts. J’avois vu les défauts de Madame Dursilly en même tems que sa beauté. Je voulois en faire ma maitresse, & non pas mon amie’ (p. 77).
The first tale to be narrated is found in a heap of papers by the roadside and picked up by the narrator. It is a Conte Moral, with the legend: ‘Quand on a perdu sans ressource l’objet d’une passion heureuse & constante, il ne faut plus prétendre aux vrais plaisirs ni au bonheur’, (I, 9-73). Other stories follow, some narrated by the many new acquaintances made in Passy, some by our three central characters. There are also short fictions by way of essays on different subjects, such as: ‘Question Galante. Doit-on préférer la mort de l’objet aimé à son infidélité? (II, 273-292), ‘Pensées sur les Plaisirs’ (III, 38-102) and ‘Comme quoi une jeune personne entre dans le monde par la mauvaise porte’ (II, 396-435).
Based on the more famous Amusemens des Eaux de Spa, La Solle has made a few changes, such as limiting the geographical descriptions before they become boring: ‘Il est juste de faire connoitre ses acteurs, & le lieu de la Scene; mais ces fortes de détails ne doivent être que préliminaires; quand ils reviennent dans le cours de l’action principale, ils en dérangent la marche, & réfroidissent les événemens...’ (p. ix).
La Solle's novel mentioned on the title-page, Mémoires de Versorand, was translated into English by John Hill as Memoirs of a Man of Pleasure, London 1751. He also wrote the rather enticingly titled novel, Bok et Zulba, histoire allegorique traduite du portugais de Don Aurel Eniner, 1740. Another edition of the present novel was published in Paris & Lausanne, 1789. La Solle committed suicide in Paris in 1761.

First edition of this famous satire on Paris society, ‘chef d'œuvre de la littérature galante’ and one of the best-sellers of pre-Revolutionary France. Set in the exotic Indies, where La Morlière creates an imaginary and fantastical world, the nature of which allows him great scope in satirising contemporary French society. The novel opens with the marriage of the just king, Erzeb-can, to Princess Arsenide, a relation of the Fée Lumineuse, queen of a neighbouring nation. It is their son, Angola, the eponymous hero, whose adventures during his travels through the Indies and Arabia make up the body of the narrative. Edouard Thiery called this novel 'le miroir du siècle, le livre des jolies boudoirs, le manuel charmant de la conversation à la mode'. The dedication, bound as usual after the preface and the contents, is addressed ‘aux petites maitresses’ and sets the tone for the ‘free and licencious’ spirit of the text. By far the most successful of La Morlière’s works, it ran to numerous editions throughout the eighteenth century, with at least ten further ‘Agra’ printings in the decade following publication.
‘The reader is continually invited to laugh mockingly at the frivolity of a world where only fashion reigns. La Morlière’s characters exist as functions of their pleasures: the theater, the opera, receptions, reading, hunting, gambling, and - above and before all else - the dynamics and delights of the bedroom. While the narration of these pleasures can never be the equivalent of experiencing them, what La Morlière does offer is a diction of flippancy and cynicism that invites his readers to share an assumed superiority to characters whom in most cases they would be delighted to replace; (Thomas M. Kavanagh, Enlightened Pleasures, 2010, p. 32).
Libertine, musketeer, theatrical critic and associate of Voltaire, La Morlière established his headquarters in the Café Procope where a clique of journalists soon formed around him. He was a great operator in the theatrical world, both in the 'Théâtre français' and the 'Comédie italienne', where he was known for the dubious nature of his dealings. However, his theatrical career came to a fairly abrupt end when he thought that by engineering applause in the usual way he could guarantee the success of his own plays, a mistake for which he paid the price of his career.

Lachèvre's copy of this satirical compilation in verse and prose by François Gacon. The volume also contains 'Recueil des pièces du Sr. Saurin contre Sr. Rousseau', pp. [395]-531. With a folding engraved plate depicting a hearth side scene with a shoemaker's new-born baby and accompanying poem: 'Histoire Veritable et Remarquable, arrivée à l'endroit d'un nommé Roux, fils d'un Cordonnier, lequel aiant renié son Pére, le Diable en prit possession'.
Another edition of the same year, pp. 512, formed the third volume of Les Oeuvres de Sr. Rousseau, Rotterdam, 1712. It was also later published under the title 'Histoire satyrique de la vie et des ouvrages de Mr. Rousseau', Paris 1716.

A scarce philosophical work by the 'Dutch Socrates', Frans Hemsterhuis, a Dutch aesthete who lavished as much care in the design of his works as he did in their composition. He wrote a number of essays and dialogues on moral philosophy which brought him into contact with Goethe, Herder and and his life-long friend, Princess Amalia von Gallitzin, who did much to strengthen his reputation amongst the German intelligentsia and encourage the translation of many of his works. Hemsterhuis' ideas influenced some of the greatest German thinkers, including Kant, Novalis, Schlegel and Schiller.
As with all of Hemsterhuis' works, Aristée was privately printed and distributed. The printing is typically elegant, the text block measuring 93 x 47 mm, a small and dense block of text within wide margins, in the present copy measuring 167 x 96 mm. The elaborate green morocco binding on this copy is probably by Thomas Van Os, a leading binder of the last quarter of the eighteenth century in the Netherlands. Van Os was commissioned by Hemsterhuis to create bindings for some of his later works, alongside Christiaan Micke, who bound so many copies of Hemsterhuis’ earlier works for presentation. Of the two, Van Os is more associated with the flat spin, as here, in addition to which this binding bears many similarities with the two bindings (particularly fig. 7) by Van Os reproduced in Jan Storm van Leeuwen’s article in The Book Collector (see The Book Collector, Summer 2001, figs. 6 and 7, pp. 215-216).
'So, let this stand as a charge to collect Hemsterhuis', writes Roger Stoddard in conclusion, 'to look more closely at his books, to solve their mysteries, and to connect the careful designs of his bookmaking with the philosophical texts they embrace and convey with such eloquence. This is just a way of asking you to leave your place marker here to honour Hemsterhuis who always provided a ribbon place marker in the bindings he commissioned for presentation' (p. 189).

A scarce libelle against William V, Prince of Orange (1748-1806), the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic. François Bernard was a French journalist who spent a number of years in Leyden and Amsterdam, where he taught mathematics, geography and French. He became closely involved in the patriotic movement in the Netherlands and was a key member of a group of French writers including Antoine Marie Cerisier and Dumont-Pigalle, who aimed to influence the broader European community on behalf of the anti-Stadtholder faction. Bernard edited the Gazette d’Amsterdam, 1786-1787 and the revolutionary journal, De Batavier, which was published in Dutch. Although written in French, the text of this important libelle was first published in Dutch in a translation by a lawyer named Blom, as Aan zyne doorluchtige hoogheid Willem den Vyfden, Prins van Oranje, 1783. A German translation, Ehrfurchtsvoller und uneigennütziger Rath an Wilhelm, was also published in 1783.

An attractive copy, though a nineteenth century binding, of a scarce early publication by Sylvain Marechal. The Bibliothèque des Amans, a compilation of poems celebrating love, consists mainly of 'Odes Erotiques' with a small final section of miscellaneous poems, quatrains, hymns and epitaphs. This is Marechal's second published work, published some seven years after his precocious Bergeries which earned him the nickname of 'Sylvain', the name by which he is known to this day and which is used on the title page of the present work. In the preface, Marechal explains that the volume is not intended to be very big but is long enough to fill just those moments in which Love makes a truce with Pleasure in order to render it more piquant. The miscellany is preceded by an 'Epître aux Femmes' and an 'Envoi' to Madame L.B.D.S.J.; it concludes with a table of verses in which are listed the tunes to which the various poems can be sung.
Includes a poem inspired by events written up in the Gazette de France in Oct. or Nov. 1776. cf. p. 190 (see note in Hollis).

One of the scarcer of the seventeen known editions of Candide to be published in 1759, this is thought to be the first Italian edition. Believed to have been printed towards the end of 1759 as it is sometimes found with an edition of Thorel de Campigneulles’ continuation, dated 1760.
‘D’après Wade... l’impression elle-même est italienne et la traduction italienne de 1759 a été faite d’après cette même édition’ (BN Voltaire Catalogue, 2634).

An important source for information on Voltaire’s life, the Commentaire Historique was published when Voltaire was eighty-two. Written in the third person, it was dictated by Voltaire to his secretary, Jean-Louis Wagnière. It is the first autobiography of an author to be published in his lifetime: ‘Jamais encore on n’avait vu une “histoire d’auteur” écrite par l’auteur lui même, et publiée de son vivant’ (André Magnan, Dictionnaire Voltaire, p. 293). Some fifteen years earlier, Voltaire had left unfinished his Mémoires which contained a brief sketch of the main events of his life, but these were not published until 1784.
Unlike Rousseau, Voltaire is very sketchy on his early life. No mention is made of his time in the Bastille or of his exile and there is only a little information on his stay in Prussia. The main focus of the book is on the last twenty years spent at Ferney and on his stand as the herald of human rights. His actions during the Calas and La Barre affairs are well documented as are his various stands against intolerance, superstition and injustice, such as abusive clerical taxation and the selling of state functions. He claims to have abandoned the power and influence derived from acquaintance with the Royal Court in favour of the power of public opinion. He makes a very interesting case for the militant intellectual as a counter-power to the establishment.
The letters which form the second part of this work are of particular significance. Chosen by Voltaire, and in some cases printed with the replies, they include correspondence to and from Linguet, Horace Walpole, Hamilton, Chesterfield and Caylus.

A scarce early edition of this controversial anti-clerical novel, the plot of which, and even entire sentences, are lifted from Voltaire's Candide. This important libertine novel is written by the defrocked monk and satirist, Du Laurens, who was famous for his sharp attacks on clerical institutions and his risqué 'philosophical' tales. The rabelaisian comic scenes and the destructive scepticism applied to institutions and received morals made the work an instant best-seller. It narrates the adventures of Compère Mathieu and his group of outcast hangers on as they wander through much of Europe and Asia earning a dubious living through such methods as forging money, practising quack medicine, selling slaves, writing pamphlets and plain old-fashioned theft.
First published in 1766, there were at least twenty-six editions of this work. It was placed on the index in 1804 and condemned as outraging public morality and religion. It's destruction was ordered by the Tribunal de la correctionel de la Seine in 1851, 1862 and 1865. Much admired by Diderot, Dulaurens' novel was a major influence on his Jacques le Fataliste. This edition is not listed in MMF, who give three editions with the imprint ‘Londres, aux dépens de la Compagnie’, one of which is an abridged edition (which this is not) and has an error in the date of the first volume; the other two are marked ‘nouvelle édition’ and are 12mo, with different pagination. This edition is also not in ESTC, which only lists eight of the known ‘Londres’ editions and only one dated 1772, a 12mo illustrated edition.

An important work by the celebrated economist, intended as an introduction to a much earlier work, his Droit publique de l’Europe which was published in 1746. ‘His Principes des negociations... was a courageous attack on the foreign policies of the European powers, and a plea for more rational and honest methods, not only for the sake of justice and humanity, but because they are actually profitable’ (Whitfield, Ernest, Gabriel Bonnot De Mably, New York, 1969). In this work he discusses the principles of international trade, modern warfare and the role of ambassadors and diplomacy. Chapter XVII, ‘Des traités de commerce. Digression sur le luxe’, contains a discussion of the theories of David Hume.
An enormously popular writer in his day, Mably is now hailed variously as communist, republican and utopian. ‘Here also is the beginning of the French School of Utopian Communism properly so called’, says George Catlin, emphasising the importance of Mably’s exposition of the doctrine of equality (see George Catlin, A History of Political Philosophers, London, 1950), while Johnson Wright stakes out new ground for Mably as a republican: ‘Mably should be seen as neither a proto-socialist nor a reactionary thinker, but as a republican - a classical republican, in fact, whose writing represents a later Gallic contribution to the political tradition founded by Machiavelli and Harrington. He is not only interesting as the personification of the revolutionary spirit and as a level-headed reformer, but because he formulated principles which have since been either accepted or re-discovered’ (Wright, History of Political Thought, Volume 13, Number 3, 1992, pp. 391-415).

A scarce separate edition of Guibert’s celebrated treatise on the art of war, first published as part of his Essai général de tactique, précédé d’un discours sur l’état actuel de la politique et de la science militaire en Europe, avec le plan d’un ouvrage intitulé La France politique et militaire, Londres, 1772.
Guibert’s controversial works on military tactics, despite being initially condemned by the French government, eventually led to many reforms in the French army. He is regarded as one of the leading military tacticians of the pre-revolutionary era and his influence extended within Europe to Frederick II and Napoleon and outside Europe, through von Steuben, to the generals of the American Revolution. Guibert’s works were widely read at the time in France and abroad, and a number of foreign translations were published including those into English, German and even Persian.
‘Of this work [Essai général de tactique] it may be said that it was the best essay on war produced by a soldier during a period in which tactics were discussed even in the salon and military literature was more abundant than at any time up to 1871’ (Encyclopædia Britanicca, 1911).
In addition to his military career and his works on tactics and the art of war, the Comte de Guibert was also a member of the Académie française, published journals of his travels in France and Switzerland, wrote a tragedy, Le Connétable de Bourbon, 1775 and had a love affair with Julie de Lespinasse, whose love letters to him were later published.
‘L'oeuvre de Guibert est neuve en son temps par sa visée totaliste articulée autour de la relation fondamentale entre politique et guerre. Guibert a du cependant courir au plus pressé et rédiger l'Essai. On y trouve une distinction entre deux parties de l'art de la guerre pressentie par d'autres en ce siècle des lumières. Guibert parle de tactique élémentaire et de grande tactique. Dans la défense du système de guerre moderne, il nommera celle-ci la stratégie ou tactique des armées. La redécouverte du concept de stratégie à la fin du XVIIIe siècle tient à une nécessité sémantique. L'articulation des armées fait naître des possibilités nouvelles, à un échelon supérieur par rapport à la tactique des armées-blocs’ (L'Art de la guerre de Machiavel à Clausewitz, 89).

The second edition in French of A discourse of free-thinking, occasion’d by the rise and growth of a sect call’d Free-Thinkers, London 1713, by Anthony Collins, philosopher and thinker, friend and pupil of John Locke and one of the most influential deists of his time. This translation, by Rousset de Missy and Scheurleer, was first published in 1714 and includes the Lettre d’un médecin arabe à un fameux Professseur de l’Université de Hall en Saxe, sur les reproches à fait à Mahomet... traduit à l’arabe, 1713, appended to the 1714 edition printed in the Hague. Also included in this edition is the critical reaction to Collins’ work by Jean-Pierre de Crousaz, Examen du Traité de la liberté de penser, which was first published in Amsterdam in 1718.
At the core of Collins’ argument is his defence of free-thinking as a natural right and a religious duty, for which he used as evidence the many disagreements between the clergy. It was largely this that laid him open to accusations of atheism and using freethinking as a platform for a dangerous self-serving and libertine agenda. The work was publicly burnt in England and provoked dozens of replies including those from Jonathan Swift, Benjamin Hoadly, George Berkeley and Richard Bentley. Collins was forced to leave England for the Netherlands until the controversy died down.

An attractive copy of Louvet de Couvray's novel, with the rare and rather striking frontispieces present in each volume. Uncommon in any state, it is particularly hard to find with the plates, which are not mentioned in any of the references noted below but which evidently belong here and greatly add to the dramatic impact of the narrative.
Taking as its subject matter divorce and the marriage of priests, it is a racy tale with forced vocations and amorous adventures. Set in provincial France, it is written as an epistolary novel featuring Dorothée and Emilie de Varmont, Monsieur Bovile and Madame d'Etioles. It had considerable political influence in France, producing two memorable decrees of the National Convention, the one authorising divorce and the other allowing priests to marry. A piracy of the text gave rise to a court case (Dalloz, Jurisprudence générale du royaume, 1830, XI, 481 and note). Further editions appeared in 1792, 1794 and 1815. It was published more recently by the Université de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, 2001. An English translation was published under the title Emily de Varmont, or Divorce dictated by Necessity, to which are added, the Memoirs of Father Sévin, London, G. Kearsley, 1798 and an American edition, in a translation by Melatiah Nash, was published in New York in 1799 under the title Emilia de Varmont, or the Necessary Divorce, and Memoirs of Curate Sevin: a Moral and Political Tale.

This is the first edition of Maupertuis’ scarce philosophical treatise to be published with his consent. The work first appeared in Berlin in 1749, printed from a manuscript copy of the text lent to President Hénault and containing numerous errors. The events surrounding this earlier publication and Maupertuis’ own resolution in printing the present official version are explained in the lengthy preface. The work is dedicated to Frédéric II, addressed as, ‘Illustre Ami’, who himself translated Maupertuis’ work.
Written during what was probably the happiest period of his life, when he was living in Berlin and enjoying the close friendship of Frédéric II, the Essai de Philosophie Morale is in effect Maupertuis’ philosophical testament. He examines the nature of good and evil, happiness and unhappiness, pessimism, stoicism, sensuality, pleasure and pain, arguing that in ordinary life the sum of pleasures surpasses the sum of misfortune and suffering. He goes on to explore ways in which the human condition might be improved and discusses the role that religion might play in this.

An attractive copy of this scarce essay on aesthetics by the philosopher-priest, Cartaud de la Vilate. In his Pensées critiques sur les mathématiques, 1733, he calls into question the certainties of mathematics and debates its usefulness. His Essai historique et philosophique sur le Goût, which first appeared in an Amsterdam edition of 1736, attracted considerable attention and was several times reprinted, as late as 1970 when Slatkine reprinted it. Grimm said of it: ‘L’auteur est dans un délire continuel. Son style est vif, rapide... marche au hasard’ (DLF, p. 272).
‘L’on peut aisément juger par la façon don [sic] ce livre est écrit, que je l’ai destiné à ces lecteurs distraits & peu sérieux, qui aiment à voltiger sur divers sujets sans trop les approfondir. Le mérite d’amuser cette partie du public, m’a paru de quelque importance. J’ai employé un style propre à ce dessein, où il s’agit de faire éfleurer la littérature à des gens qui n’ont gueres que de l’imagination, & qui l’ont vive’ (Preface).
The work is divided into two parts: the first, which takes up the larger part of the work, is ‘Essais historiques & philosophiques sur le Goût’. The second part is wider-ranging and includes shorter essays, such as ‘Le Goût est-il arbitraire?’, ‘Des fondemens de l’harmonie’, ‘En quoi consiste le géométrique de l’harmonie’ and ‘L’ignorance est-elle plus avantageuse à la politique des princes, que l’étude des lettres?’.

A charming copy of one of the most important pastoral novels in French literature, including Florian's introductory essay on the pastoral form. Inspired by Daphnis and Chloe and set at the end of the fifteenth century, the novel tells of the love of the shepherd Némorin for the beautiful Estelle. She returns his love but out of duty and gratitude is obliged to marry another shepherd, Méril, after he rescues her father. Némorin despairs but is saved by Méril's heroic sacrifice of his own life in battle, a sacrifice made so that the lovers might be united. Estelle is thought to be a rather magnificent heroine, of whom the elderly Buffon remarked: 'la douce, l'aimable, l'intéressante Estelle a suspendu mes maux'.
'Dans les pastorales comme dans les arlequinades de Florian, toujours le ciel est bleu, l'amour loyal, les femmes chastes; la vertu, qui est spontanée et facile, est infailliblement récompensée. Mais l'auteur n'est pas dupe. Mainteneur fidèle de la tradition arcadienne et utopique immanente à tout le classicisme, il propose au lecteur un pèlerinage aux siècles d'or, un retour anticipé au paradis perdu. Et il est permis de rester sensible encore à la fluidité mélodique de sa prose et de ses vers' (DLF 487).
Set in the Cévennes, the author's birthplace, this work is also celebrated for its description of the local topography, the mountains, landscapes and flora of the region. 'Je veux célébrer ma patrie', he wrote of Estelle, 'ces beaux climats ou la verte olive, la mure vermeille, la grappe dorée croissent ensemble sous un ciel toujours d'azur'. To augment the local feeling of the work, Florian gives the Provencal translation for a number of the shepherdess' rhymes in the footnotes. The importance of Florian's works to the local community was witnessed in the early twentieth century by the Felibrige revival movement in Provence, which paid an annual tribute to him.
An enormously popular novel, several editions were published within the first year, at least five bearing the present imprint ('de l'imprimerie de Monsieur', ie the brother of Louis XVI who reigned from 1815 as Louis XVIII). Cioranescu gives the present edition as the first, but MMF demote it to third place.

An attractive copy of the first French translation of the second part of Lafontaine’s Leben des Quinctius Heymeran von Flaming, Berlin 1795. This novel was one of Lafontaine’s biggest successes and shows the author at the height of his fictional genius.
‘Leben und Thaten des Freiherrn Quinctius Heymeran von Flaming (Berlin, 1795-6) shows how Lafontaine was able to exploit the new wave of ritterromane, and at the same time could refer to and profit from the already firmly established popularity of Siegfried von Lindenberg (1779) by Johann Gottwerth Müller, the so-called 'Itzehoe-Müller ', as he critically dealt with the controversial ideas about physiognomy... This way of profiting from earlier success stories was one important aspect of Lafontaine's own success. He never aspired to create originally conceived works and did not wait for an inspirational impetus: he was an extraordinarily hard-working man who made his living out of writing. Furthermore, he made clever use of what was to be one of the fundamental characteristics of the popular literary field: the principle of repetition... That William Lane's Minerva Press became the principal publisher of Lafontaine's novels in English is hardly surprising. Of the twenty-three translations into English published between 1797 and 1813, eight came from Minerva: the character of the Lafontaine novels suited the Minerva Press excellently, and one could easily have expected an even more dominant Minerva participation’ (Margareta Björkman, ‘High and Low, Some Remarks on the Reading Culture of the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries’, in Romantic Textualities, Issue 3, September 1999).

Saint Simon’s celebrated Mémoires, ‘one of the most original monuments of French literature’, were principally written between 1740 and 1746 long after he went into retirement. The sparkling wit and complete freedom from restraint of the memoirs - Saint Simon allows his personal hatreds free reign and writes violently against the ‘leprosy’ of equality - make them an enjoyable read as well as being an important, if not altogether impartial, source of information.

The first two volumes contain a number of extracts from Saint-Simon’s Mémoires, which were not to be published for another couple of years. A fourth volume dealing with the reigns of Henri IV and Louis XIII was added later.

‘Tout dans cette Galerie n’est pas tiré de Saint-Simon; il est vraisemblable que Soulavie a été l’éditeur de ce recueil’ (Tchemerzine, V, p. 657).

A scarce translation of this German sentimental novel set in wartime, attributed to the German writer Adam Beuvius. Originally published as Henriette oder der Husarenraub, in Briefen bey Gelegenheit des gegenwärtigen Krieges, Berlin and Leipzig, 1779. It has also been attributed to Christopher Martin Wieland (1733-1813). An English translation of the first volume appeared in Dublin in 1786, with the attribution to Wieland on the title page: Henrietta of Gerstenfeld. Translated from the German of Mr. Wieland, Dublin, H. Chamberlain for the Translator, 1786. The Wieland attribution was dropped when the second volume, which was printed by William Lane at the Minerva Press, followed in 1788: Henrietta of Gerstenfeld; a German Story.
Andrew Becket evidently expected something more from a German novel: ‘on the score of morality it is truly excellent. -But it is greatly wanting in those delicate and pathetic touches, which so particularly distinguish the writings of a Gesner, and a Klopstock...’ (Monthly Review, quoted in GRS, I, 377).

First edition of one of Riccoboni’s scarcer early novels. Written in the third person, as against the epistolary form that came to be her preferred genre (although some ten letters are given in the body of the text and those mostly in the first half), Histoire de M. le Marquis de Cressy is an analytical sentimental novel in which the egotistical and ambitious Cressy seeks, Valmont-like, to forward his career and his fortune through a series of well-placed seductions. Riccoboni’s interest, as always, lies in the collateral damage done to the female characters through their involvement with the hero and it is in the subtlety and astuteness of Riccoboni’s psychological analysis that the strength of the novel lies.
‘The best [of Riccoboni’s novels] is her Histoire de M. le marquis de Cressy (1758), in which the conflict of motive happens to be in the mind of a man. The middle-aged marquis has engaged the affections of a young girl, and for a moment hesitates between the charm of her youth and the worldly advantages of marriage with a beautiful widow who will second his ambitions. He writes one of those sophistical letters in which Madame Riccoboni excelled, explaining to the unfortunate girl that although his heart burns for her he must sacrifice his dreams of happiness. She feels that life for her is over, and takes the veil, bidding her perfidious lover adieu. She loves him yet, though she knows now that she has loved an illusion: it is not the lover that is most regretted, but the sentiment, the enchantment that has flown, the bliss of loving. That is the consolation of the sentimentalist’ (Ernest Albert Baker, The History of the English Novel, v.1 p. 137).
This was a very popular novel, with several other editions of the French text following in 1758 and subsequent years. An English translation was published in 1765 under the title The History of the Marquis of Cressy. Translated from the French (Block p. 197).