Amant Traduction Française Précédée Dune by Brontë Emily (1 results)

First edition in French of Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1847), later renamed Les Hauts de Hurle-Vent. Scarce: Library Hub locates only one copy in the UK (BL), WorldCat adds a further four in France; we could trace only one in commercial records, a rebound copy which sold at auction in 2018. The first edition, published by Thomas Cautley Newby in London, was rushed into the shops on 4 December 1847 to capitalize on the unexpected success of Jane Eyre, which was published by Newby's rivals, Smith, Elder & Company, earlier the same year. Wuthering Heights, however, attracted only hostile and uncomprehending reviews, perhaps explaining the lengthy delay in the production of a French translation. This edition includes a prefatory biography of the author by Wyzewa, albeit largely inspired by Charlotte Brontë's preface for a later edition in English. Portrayed as a coy, homesick girl who preferred the company of nature, animals, and the night, Emily Brontë captured the popular imagination of a country under the spell of Verlaine's myth of the cursed poet. "The polyglot Polish exile Teodor de Wyzewa is now remembered mainly as the first exégète of Mallarmé and as the joint author of a massive monograph on Mozart. But from his prodigiously prolific pen there also came 26 volumes of novels, tales, memoirs and essays, 40 volumes of translations, and 900 articles on literature" (Austin). Lloyd Austin, "Poetic Principles and Practice", p. 295. Octavo. Original yellow wrappers, titles printed in black to spine and wrappers, untrimmed. Housed in a green cloth flat-back box by the Chelsea Bindery. A hint of wear, spine expertly stabilized, light browning and discolouration to spine, contents a touch browned, a very well-preserved copy of a delicate production.