BERNARDIN DE SAINT-PIERRE (Jacques-Henri). Selected Works. - Lot 35

BERNARDIN DE SAINT-PIERRE (Jacques-Henri). Selected Works. Including *Paul and Virginie*, *The Indian Cottage*, *The Café of Surat*, *A Journey to Silesia*, *On the Island of France*, *Arcadia*, *On the Nature of Morality*, and *The Wishes of a Solitary*. Paris, Librairie de Firmin Didot Frères, Printers to the Institute, 56 rue Jacob, 1854. In-12, portrait of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre engraved as a frontispiece, contemporary binding in red half-shagreen with corners, marbled paper covers, spine with raised bands highlighted by gilt fillets, two title labels in midnight blue morocco, gilt letters. Mottled edges. A collected edition of the major works of Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737–1814), including notably his masterpiece *Paul and Virginie*, as well as *La Chaumière indienne*, *Le Café de Surate*, his travel writings, and several of his philosophical texts. This 1854 Firmin Didot edition is well-documented in bibliographies; it is part of a series of Selected Works published by Didot in the mid-19th century. The volume features a frontispiece portrait of the author engraved in intaglio; the bibliographic descriptions of this edition indicate that the portrait is based on a work by Hopwood. Provenance: an old library stamp in blue ink on the title page, “... de Lisieux,” partially legible. A fine copy in an elegant, decorative 19th-century binding. Spine and corners slightly rubbed; a few minor signs of wear on the binding. Fairly heavy foxing, particularly visible on the title page and several leaves, but overall well-preserved and with a sturdy binding. This is not a first edition—*Paul et Virginie* was first published as early as 1787—but a collected edition sought after primarily for its charming Romantic presentation and binding, rather than for its bibliographic rarity. Reprints very similar to this Didot edition are indeed known to have been published during the 1850s and 1860s.