Crébillon - Œuvres - 1779

THE SECRET EROTICISM OF THE FRENCH ENLIGHTENMENT: COMPLETE WORKS BY CRÉBILLON IN ELEGANT SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY BINDING
Refined complete collection of Claude-Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon’s works, universally known as Crébillon fils, one of the brightest and most scandalous authors of eighteenth-century France. Published in 1779, a few years after the author’s death, this edition collects in full the novels, dialogues, and tales that made Crébillon the great interpreter of French gallant society between the Regency and the Enlightenment. Through elegant, ironic, and deeply psychological prose, the author explored the mechanisms of seduction, ambition, and aristocratic hypocrisy, anticipating in many aspects the modern libertine novel. The set, preserved in uniform contemporary bindings, constitutes one of the most representative testimonies of French libertine literature of the eighteenth century.
MARKET VALUE
Complete eighteenth-century collections of Crébillon fils’s works retain a steady market among collectors of French literature, the Enlightenment, and libertinism. Complete copies in uniform contemporary bindings appear relatively rarely on the international market. Depending on completeness, condition, and edition, values generally range from 400 to 800 euros, with particularly fresh copies or those from prestigious libraries that may exceed these figures.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Seven volumes rebound in full contemporary marbled leather, spines decorated in gold with inlays and decorative friezes. Minor wear to boards, corners, and edges, with physiological leather abrasions from use. Paper with some browning and physiologic foxing. Old heraldic ex libris applied to the front pastedowns. In ancient books, with a centuries-long history, some imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. Pp.:
(4); 6nn; 160; (4)
(4); 2nn; 642; 4nn; (4)
(4); 2nn; 518; 2nn; (4)
(4); 2nn; 644; (4)
(4); 2nn; 638; (4)
(4); 2nn; 708; (4)
(4); 2nn; 478; (6)

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Collection complète des œuvres de M. de Crébillon le fils.
London, 1779.
Crébillon fils (Claude-Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon).

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
Crébillon fils occupied a central position in the history of eighteenth-century French narrative. In his novels and social dialogues, seduction becomes an intellectual game, governed by strategies, ambitions, and social masks. Works such as Les Égarements du cœur et de l'esprit, Le Sopha, and La Nuit et le Moment helped define libertine fiction before Laclos’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses appeared. Behind the apparent lightness lies a subtle critique of French aristocratic society, observed with irony and extraordinary psychological acuity. His works constitute a privileged source for understanding the sensibility of the Ancien Régime in the years preceding the Revolution.
BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Claude-Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon (1707-1777), called Crébillon fils, was a French novelist, playwright, and moralist. Son of the famous tragedian Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, he chose a completely different literary path, dedicating himself to psychological and libertine fiction. His works, often censored or published clandestinely, enjoyed enormous success among European aristocracy and deeply influenced eighteenth-century French narrative.
PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Crébillon fils’s works underwent numerous editions during the eighteenth century, often published with false printer’s imprints to bypass censorship. The complete collections published after the author’s death helped solidify his literary prestige. The 1779 edition belongs to the period of greatest European diffusion of his works and precedes by a few years the French Revolution, which would put an end to the aristocratic world depicted in his novels.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes, passim.
Quérard, La France Littéraire, II, pp. 320-324.
Cioranescu, Bibliographie de la littérature française du XVIIIe siècle, nn. 20549-20585.
Cohen-De Ricci, Guide de l'Amateur de Livres à Gravures, references to illustrated editions of Crébillon.
Hoefer, Nouvelle Biographie Générale, XII, pp. 497-500.
Brunet, Manuel du Libraire, II, coll. 405-408.
Catalogue général de la Bibliothèque nationale de France, Crébillon fils.
WorldCat, entries of the 1779 complete editions.
ICCU / OPAC SBN, Italian locations of Crébillon fils’s works.
Robert Darnton, The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France, sections devoted to libertine literature.