Pierre Louys. Illustrations d' Antoine Calbet - Aphrodite - 1896

Very carefully crafted full leather binding with a gilded medallion engraved in relief on the first cover, depicting Aphrodite and Pierre Louÿs. Gilt dentelle endpapers with gilded decorations, gilded top edge. Original cover preserved. Numerous engravings in and out of the text.

Aphrodite: Ancient customs / Pierre Louÿs; illustrations by A. Calbet. Paris: Borel, 1896. 1 volume (393 pages): illustrations, plates; octavo. Édouard Guillaume Collections. 'Nymphée'

Pierre Louÿs was a French poet and novelist (1870-1925).
He founded the literary magazine La Conque in 1891, where works by Parnassian and Symbolist authors were published—masters serving as models, such as Mallarmé, Leconte de Lisle, or Verlaine, but also young poets still unknown at the time, like Valéry, André Gide, and Louÿs himself.
His first novel, Aphrodite (Ancient Morals), was published in 1896.
Aphrodite achieved such success upon her debut that she launched the editions of Mercure de France. This success was partly due to a laudatory article by François Coppée, and undoubtedly to the libertine scenes sprinkled throughout the novel. This 'ancient customs' novel (the subtitle of the work), set in Alexandria, tells the story of the courtesan Chrysis and Démétrios, a sculptor. Chrysis, a Galilean with long golden hair (hence her Greek nickname), proud of her art and beauty, boasts of obtaining 'the vilest obedience from the first comer.' Démétrios, meanwhile, is the object of genuine worship among the women of the city, but he is tired of their frenzied idolization. He has come to prefer his statue of Aphrodite to Queen Bérénice, who was the model for it, and of whom he is a jaded lover...

Shipping via Mondial Relay (delivery to a relay point) for: France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Poland (unless requested by you and with acceptance of the additional cost).
Other countries via Colissimo (unless requested by you and with acceptance of the additional cost).