Honoré de Balzac - Les ressources de Quinola. - 1864

Honoré de Balzac: The Resources of Quinola.

Paris, Michel Levy, 1864. In-12, [2] f., 95 p.

Third edition according to Vicaire with the note "conforme à la représentation" of October 12, 1863 (Théâtre du Vaudeville), that is, somewhat modified from the text of the first performance in March 1842 (Odéon). The original appeared with a prologue in 1842 at H. Souverain.
An interesting copy with a manuscript note on the half-title, by an anonymous actor of the time: “I played Monipodio on 13 9bre à l’improviste” and on the cover "13 9bre 63" by the same hand.
Notes that add interest to Balzac’s work, rather poorly received at its 1842 premiere, with only 19 performances, which seems to be rehabilitated posthumously.
Ex-libris label Maurice de Meure with a long pencil note on the guard.

Recent, sound binding in half-murgained morocco with long corners (bands), five raised bands on the spine, gilded head.
Very well preserved with covers & spine intact.

Context: Not completely discouraged by the misadventures of Vautrin, Balzac continues to write for the theater, and had Les ressources de Quinola accepted at L’Odéon as early as 1842.
The criticism is unfavorable, the performances stormy, even if the play has some defenders (Victor Hugo, Lamartine). The play was staged 19 times.

At the beginning of the play we are in 1588 in Spain. The Invincible Armada has just sunk. A man is in prison, threatened by the Inquisition. His valet, Quinola, tries to save him....

The Resources of Quinola is at once The Tricks of Scapin and The Marriage of Figaro. Balzac’s ambition from the 1840s until his death was indeed to attain a fame comparable to that of his illustrious predecessors.

The failure of The Resources of Quinola (1842) was Balzac’s great theatrical disappointment. Certainly, all his theatrical troubles were cruel to him, but Balzac believed that The Resources of Quinola should allow him, not only to finally earn a dramatic reputation after the misfortunes of Vautrin, but also to establish financial independence that could enable personal freedom, notably to travel to join Mme Hanska (“If I have a success I’ll leave; if I fall, it will take four volumes to earn enough for the journey”). A double ambition that ended in a double disappointment. Balzac was convinced of the quality of The Resources of Quinola. Quinola was, for him, the culmination of the great comedy he always dreamed of writing, a play in the vein of “The Misanthrope and Figaro,” a lofty play that could bring either total glory or a shameful fall: “With the greatness of the subject, there is no alternative,” he wrote to Mme Hanska. But Quinola was neither one nor the other. Unlike Vautrin, the play was performed, and even if it was not a success since it knew only twenty performances, it was not a crushing failure either.