1864 H B par un des quarante

Description

Leather Binding, Very Scarce

Rebound in full-crushed morocco. Illustrated book plate on front pastedown, belonging to 'A. C. Burnell', which could be Arthur Coke Burnell, an English civil servant who served in the Madras Presidency. This is the third edition of 'H B par un des quarante', an anonymous essay that was penned by Prosper Merimee. In this work, Merimee defends the memory, talent, and writing of his friend Stendhal, whose real name Marie-Henri Beyle had the initials of H B. First published in 1850, eight years after Stendhal's death, this French work was presented in a brochure of sixteen pages and chronicled the romantic adventures that Stendhal and Merimee had together. Only twenty five copies of the first edition were made and distributed to Stendhal's friends, resulting in a scandal within the social group. Merimee was denounced as an atheist and blasphemous by Stendhal's friends due to the claims made about Stendhal's 'improper' behaviour within the work. Collated, missing the frontispiece which is mentioned in the subtitle, 'avec un frontispice stupefiant dessine'.