La voie douloureuse.

'DORNIS, Jean' [pseud.Élena BEER].

Published by [Évreux, Charles Hérissey for] Paris, Calmann Levy, 1894., 1894

About this Item

8vo, pp.viii, 195, [1, blank]; a very good copy in contemporary red Jansenist morocco by E.Pouget (turn-in signed in gilt, front free endpaper verso signed in black), spine lettered directly in gilt, top-edge gilt, others trimmed, the original printed wrappers bound in; a little rubbed, partial split to front joint, wrappers lightly soiled; authorial ink presentation inscription to Edmond Beer to half-title (seebelow).First edition of Jean Dornis' first novel, presented by the author to her brother-in-law, Edmond Raphael Beer, one of twenty-four copies on papier de Hollande. Jean Dornis was the pen-name of the Italian-born French author Élena Beer (nèe Goldschmidt-Franchetti, 1864 1949). Later instrumental in popularising Italian literature and theatre in France, she contributed to the Revue des deux mondes and Le Figaro, inter alia; La voie douloureuse is her first published work, a novel about a married woman, Jeanne, who falls in love with her brother-in-law, recently returned from Vietnam and engaged to her best friend. In what is perhaps a slightly eyebrow-raising gesture, our copy is presented by the author to her own brother-in-law, Edmond Raphael Beer (1857 1912): 'A Edmond Beer | gage d'affetueuse sympathie'.Provenance: From the de Rothschild library at Exbury House, Hampshire, most likely by descent to Beer's daughter, Marie-Louise (1892 1975), who in 1912 married Lionel Nathan de Rothschild. They acquired the Exbury estate (formerly in the possession of the Mitfords) in 1919. Language: French.

Seller Inventory # F2121.2

Bibliographic Details

• Title: La voie douloureuse.
• Publisher: [Évreux, Charles Hérissey for] Paris, Calmann Levy, 1894.
• Publication Date: 1894
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)