Scarron / Westel - Le Roman comique - 1980

The Comical Novel, by Paul Scarron, text presented and commented by Robert Garapon, illustrations by Westel

The Comical Novel is Paul Scarron’s best-known work, a narrative in which he depicts the manners of a troupe of itinerant actors in a satirical, direct, and simple style, the opposite of the sentimental and literary novels fashionable in his time. The work appeared in two parts, in 1651 and 1657. It provided Théophile Gautier with the idea and some details for his *Capitaine Fracasse*.

The 1980 edition from the Imprimerie nationale, in the “Lettres françaises” collection, is one of the finest French editorial productions of the era: the collection, based on the principle of a luxury book with a limited numbered print run, brought together a text established by a recognized specialist, original iconography commissioned from a contemporary illustrator, and printing and binding of a quality worthy of the Imprimerie nationale’s artisanal tradition. The text is presented and commented by Robert Garapon, a leading specialist of seventeenth-century literature and author of a reference thesis on *La Fantaisie verbale et le comique dans le théâtre français*. This edition, cited as a reference in the critical bibliography of the *Roman comique*, is the scholarly base edition for Scarron studies of the 1980s.

The former gallant abbé turned Parisian libertine, deformed by a tuberculous bone disease that ruined his appearance, Paul Scarron (1610-1660) cultivated the burlesque genre, was close to the Fronde, then protected by Fouquet, and finally husband of Françoise d’Aubigné, future marquise of Maintenon and morganatic wife of Louis XIV. In 1643, his *Recueil de quelques vers burlesques* sparked immense fashion. He then published *Le Typhon* (1644), the first French burlesque epic, followed from 1648 to 1652 by *Le Virgile travesti*, a parody of the Aeneid, while writing his best comedies, including *Jodelet ou le Maître valet* (1645) and *Don Japhet d'Arménie* (1653). The illustrator Westel provides nine full-color compositions in a vivid expressive style for this edition. He adds a graphic-section of nine plates gathered at the end of the volume, which together constitute one of the most ambitious illustrations of Scarron’s text in the twentieth century.

The edition is presented in one square quarto volume (8°) of 22.5 x 17 cm, bound in red full leather by the publisher, spine with four ribs underscored by golden filet lines, gilded head, 358 pages, with numerous Westel illustrations including color plates inserted between the pages. The print run is limited to 5,200 numbered copies: 5,000 on edition paper by Rives bound in full leather, and 200 on large paper.