[Voltaire] - La pucelle d'Orléans, poème héroï-comique. Nouvelle édition, sans faute et sans lacune. Augmentée... - 1767

Rare new edition in London, published 5 years after the original, of this iconoclastic work that scandalized the court of France.

Spiritual account of Jeanne's loves, or rather her difficulties, through extraordinary encounters (a hermaphrodite, a lecherous Franciscan, a salacious muleteer...).

Voltaire began writing it in 1730 and completed the first four cantos, continuing to develop it until 1762, the year he published the only official version, consisting of twenty-one cantos.

Its status as a censored licentious document encouraged the circulation of numerous clandestine and unrecognized versions across Europe (in Geneva, Paris, Amsterdam, Leuven, London, Glasgow, Kehl, and even 'Tabesterahn,' 'Conculix,' or 'Corculia').

Curious edition that contains only the first 18 chants. They are followed by a letter from Voltaire to the French Academy regarding the first editions of this poem, then by an epistle from Father Grisbourdon. The work concludes with a judgment and an epigram. Also included is a frontispiece engraving illustrating chant 11.

The present copy was concealed within a binding whose title page bears the word 'Heures,' as if it were a religious book.

Full havana porphyre calf, smooth spine, fleurs and panels with gilded tools. Gilded fillets framing the boards, gilded edges. (18th-century binding)

Condition: scuffs on the crowns and sections, small missing parts on the head crown. Interior is cool, with rare pinpricks. Very good condition.

Voltaire
The Pucelle of Orléans, a heroic-comic poem. New edition, without error and without omission. Enlarged with an Epistle from Père Grisbourdon to M. de Voltaire, and a Judgment on the poem of the Pucelle to Mxxx, with an Epigram on the same poem.
In London, [s.n.], 1767
In-12 (16.5 x 10 cm); 247 pages.