Choderlos de Laclos - Les Liaisons dangereuses, ou Lettres recueillies dans une société... - 1782

Rare first edition in octavo published in the same year as the original, as described by Brun, with the same numbering error of the letter XIX, marked XXI. According to Brun, Ducup's reasoning is incorrect.

Complete set in two volumes, bound in half-ebony morocco with corner pieces, round spines decorated with gold fillets and the title in gilt letters.
Overall in good condition. Worn hinges, headbands, and corners, with scratches on the back (title and volume number slightly faded). The interior is well preserved overall, with some foxing and minor pinholes without severity, and slightly yellowed paper. Small loss of paper on the endpaper of the second volume.
Good specimen.

Provenance: Ex-libris of Henry Thomas Buckle (born November 24, 1821, in Lee, London – died May 29, 1862, in Damascus), British historian. Surmounted by Philip Currie's ex-libris on the front pastedown.

A work by a career military officer, Dangerous Liaisons is considered the most scandalous book of its time. 'Bible of libertinism' for some, the book is primarily recognized as a masterpiece of the analytical novel, as one of the most abstract and intelligent novels. The ideologue in Laclos is fascinated by the mechanisms of intelligence and willpower, which he perceives most clearly at work among the perfectly polite villains, venomous flowers of the refined and decadent society of the Ancien Régime.

Pierre-Ambroise-François Choderlos de Laclos (1741-1803)
Dangerous Liaisons, or Letters Collected in Society, and Published for the Instruction of Some Others.
Neuchatel, Typographic Society, 1782
2 volumes in-8 (196 x 123 mm) of 1 frontispiece (title), VIII pages (warning, preface), 357 pages for volume I; 1 frontispiece (title), 365 pages.