Voltaire Translated Richard Aldington Introduction (4 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. with 20 illustrations in (pastel) colour by Sylvain Sauvage (illustrator). This book is a "royal octavo," which is to say somewhat taller than usual octavo -- it measures 6-5/8th X 10-1/8th inches (16.7 X 25.7 cm.), in a tan slipcase with NO dust jacket as issued. No publication date stated, but presumably between 1939 and 1945 (1942 being our compromise estimate.) Laid in is an appropriate 4-page copy of "Sandglass," the monthly newsletter of the Heritage Club, Number XV:15. Unlike books promoting the castration (chemical or otherwise) of small children which shocked parents now sometimes seek to have removed from the children's sections of tax-funded libraries, which some now dub "book-banning" (despite the fact these titles are still widely available for purchase for private use), Voltaire's "Candide" really was banned (albeit not very effectively.) Despite the "Great Council of Geneva" and the administrators of Paris banning it shortly after its 1759 release, some 30,000 copies were printed in Kehl, right across the Rhine from Strasbourg, and gleefully brought over to Paris, where the book quickly became a "best seller." In 1762, "Candide" -- which ridiculed the hypocrisy of both church and state -- was further listed in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the list of books prohibited by that long-standing champion of free debate, the Roman Catholic Church. 170 years later, in February of 1929, a U.S. Customs official in Boston seized a number of copies of the book, deeming the book "obscene" and thus preventing them from reaching a Harvard University French class. According to Anne Haight ("Banned Books," 1970), the official who confiscated the books explained "About 'Candide,' I'll tell you. For years we've been letting that book get by. There were so many different editions, all sizes and kinds, some illustrated and some plain, that we figured the book must be all right. Then one of us happened to read it. It's a filthy book." And as late as 1944, the U.S. Post Office demanded that "Candide" be dropped from the catalog of major retailer Concord Books. There have been many theatrical adaptations, of course (to include the 1974 Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim comic operetta), though the best known modern adaptations are undoubtedly the 1958 Terry Southern/Mason Hoffenberg novel and subsequent 1968 all-star film adaptation "Candy." 147 pp.

Full Leather. Condition: Fine. No Jacket. Sylvian Sauvage (illustrator). Copyright for this edition is 1977. 131 pages. Full leather with gilt stamped lettering and decoration. Raised spine bands. All edges of text block are gilded. Silk moire end leaves and book mark.

Full leather. Condition: Fine. Sylvain Sauvage (illustrator). Collector's Edition, 100 Greatest Books Ever Written. Gilt-stamped dark blue leather, all edges gilt, perriwinkle endpapers, bound-in ribbon marker, 8vo, 131 pp., color frontis., b/w illus. Top edges of endpapers just a bit sunned, tiny spot on title page.

Decorative Cloth. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. Norman Tealby (illustrator). 1st Edition. 1928 first edition. Size large octavo, 9.25" tall, 220 pages. Black buckram cloth covered boards with gilt titles and illustration to the front cover and spine, page edges are rough trimmed, end-papers printed with repeat pattern of flower baskets. Condition very good, corners and spine ends are rubbed, creasing at head and tail of spine, the rough trimmed page edges are browned, there are a few spots to the first and last 10 to 15 pages or so otherwise the pages are very clean throughout. Candide, The World As It Is: Babouc's Vision; Memnon, or Human Wisdom; Bababec and the Fakirs; Jeannot and Colin; The Story of Scarmentado's Travels; Lord Chesterfield's Ears.