Olivier
Paris: Urbain Canel (1826). 226pp.
Item #6296
One of a series of novels that appeared within a few years of each other, all of which relate to varities of "impossible love". This novel, as well as another with a similar name by the Duchesse Claire de Duras, are said to relate to the broken engagement of the homosexual Marquis de Custine to Claire de Duras (daughter of the writer) in 1818. The anonymous novel created a scandal on several counts–because of its allusion to sexual "impotency" and the other to the fact that the true authorship of the work was a matter of considerable gossip. Many believed that the author was in fact the Duchesse de Duras and Latouche himself declared at the time that he was not the author, either. Duras had read aloud her novel Olivier ou le Secret in her salon in 1825 and challenged her listeners to accept the unconventional elements of the story, but the novel remained unpublished until 1971. The story of the Marquis de Custine is a fascinating one–he lived openly with his homosexual partner and was nonetheless at the center of Parisian society in post-Revolution France. Latouche (1785-1851) was the author of several rather controversial books and was friends with both Balzac and Stendhal. See Gross, The Scar of Revolution–Custine, Toqueville, and the Romantic Imagination. A very good example of the first edition in contemporary patterned paper boards, marbled endpapers, small bookplate. Rare.
Price: $500.00