Mademoiselle de Maupin; Double Amour

Paris: L. Conquet / G. Charpentier, 1883. Later edition. Hardcover. Very near Fine. 2 vol. 8vo. [7], viii-xvi, 1-347, [2]; [4], 1-373, [3] pp. Later three-quarter brown morocco over marbled boards, beautiful red, green, white, and yellow decorations on the spines (a coat of arms, crossed swords, and roses), spines lettered in gilt that is blocked in red morocco; top edges gilt. Marbled endpapers and pastedowns. Original wrappers and spines bound in. Bound by H. Blanchetière. Number 180 of 350 copies done on vellum. Volume one illustrated with a frontispiece, an engraved title page, and an illustration on the title page, also with eight plates. Volume two illustrated with nine plates and an image on the title page. All That's Interesting, Genevieve Carlton, "The Wild Life Of Julie D'Aubigny, The Bisexual, Sword-Fighting 17th-Century Opera Star". Duncan & De Bartha 36. Henri Blanchetière worked in the early twentieth century designing luxurious bindings. This binding was likely done after the First World War. Gautier's novel was first published in 1835, based on the unconventional life of Julie D'Aubigny, a bisexual woman who had to seek two royal pardons from Louis XIV for dueling. D'Abigny was an opera singer, a master swordswoman, a gambler, and an avid suitor and romancier. She is recorded as disguising herself in men's clothes to fence and to woo women. A dynamo of the seventeenth century, D'Abigny's story is larger-than-life, and brilliantly captured in this daring novel (enchanced by its beautiful illustrations).