Feydeau - Souvenirs d'une Cocodette - 1950

THE GANG-BOG PARISIAN OF FEYDEAU: IMAGINED MEMORIES OF A COQUETTE BETWEEN ER0TISME, SPIRIT, AND THE BELLE ÉPOQUE
A refined French bibliographic edition from the XX century reissues one of the most famous and amusing texts by Ernest Feydeau, father of the great playwright Georges Feydeau. Souvenirs d'une Cocodette is a bright satirical chronicle of fashionable and romantic life in Second Empire Paris, narrated through the imagined voice of a young society woman. The edition, published by the prestigious Cercle du Livre Précieux, is enriched with twelve splendid etchings and watercolors by Berthomme Saint-André, the ideal interpreter of the Parisian society’s frivolous, sensual, and theatrical elegance of the nineteenth century. A book that fuses literature, art, and collecting in a charming editorial presentation.
MARKET VALUE
Illustrated editions of Cercle du Livre Précieux enjoy a good reputation among collectors of French livres illustrés of the twentieth century. The numbered copies with the complete suite of plates and kept in the original presentation box typically sell between €200 and €400. Especially fresh copies with plates loose and perfectly preserved can command higher prices on the specialist market for French illustration.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Volume housed in its red cloth publisher’s binding within a coordinated slipcase. Numbered edition, item no. 715. The copy belongs to the second numbered printing from 406 to 805. Illustrated with twelve etchings and color watercolors by Berthomme Saint-André, kept loose in the appropriate internal folders. In old books with centuries of history, there may be some imperfections, not always noted in the description. Pp. 4nn; (4); 4nn; (4); 2nn; 116; 2nn + plates hors texte.

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Souvenirs d'une Cocodette.
Publié pour les souscripteurs par Le Cercle du Livre Précieux, Paris.
Ernest Feydeau.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
Originally published in the nineteenth century, Souvenirs d'une Cocodette belongs to the tradition of French salon literature that observes with irony and disenchantment the sentimental, social, and theatrical life of the capital. The “cocodette” was a typical figure of Second Empire Parisian society: an elegant, independent, seductive young woman perfectly integrated into the rituals of urban sociability. Through brilliant and witty prose, Feydeau builds a light yet piercing satire of bourgeois society, of romantic conventions, and of the theatricality of social life. The work stands as an extraordinary literary document of Parisian urban culture, suspended between frivolity, luxury, and modernity. Berthomme Saint-André’s illustrations perfectly amplify this atmosphere, evoking with a few elegant strokes the world of drawing rooms, theaters, ballerinas, cocottes, and Paris’s grand boulevards.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Ernest Feydeau (1821-1873) was a French novelist, dramatist, and art critic. He counted Gustave Flaubert, Théophile Gautier, and the leading figures of Parisian literary life among his circle. His works often tackle themes related to fashion, passion, and the manners of contemporary society. He is also remembered as the father of Georges Feydeau, one of France’s most important playwrights of the Belle Époque.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE ILLUSTRATOR
Berthomme Saint-André (1901-1977) was a French illustrator, engraver, and painter particularly esteemed for his interpretations of gallant and libertine French literature. His work is distinguished by the elegance of line, chromatic sensitivity, and the ability to evoke the charm of fin-de-siècle Paris through refined female figures and theatrical atmospheres.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Le Cercle du Livre Précieux was one of the most prestigious French bibliographic publishers in the postwar era. Specializing in limited editions and illustrated works for bibliophiles, it published numerous classics of French literature accompanied by original iconographic apparatus created by contemporary artists. This Souvenirs d'une Cocodette edition fits within that tradition and testifies to the renewed twentieth-century interest in Second Empire salon literature. The limited and numbered edition enhances its collectible appeal.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Carteret, Le Trésor du Bibliophile Illustré, vol. IV, pp. 145-147.
Talvart & Place, Bibliographie des Auteurs Modernes de Langue Française, vol. VII, pp. 87-91.
Vicaire, Manuel de l'Amateur de Livres du XIXe Siècle, col. 269-272.
Bénézit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, under the entry "Berthomme Saint-André".
Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), Feydeau, Ernest catalog.
WorldCat, Souvenirs d'une Cocodette, éditions du Cercle du Livre Précieux.
Catalogue général de la BnF, éditions bibliophiliques du Cercle du Livre Précieux.
Monod, Manuel de l'Amateur de Livres Illustrés Modernes, sez. XXe siècle.