Alfred de Musset - Oeuvres Complètes - 1897-1901

Complete works of Alfred de Musset; the 11th and final volume, 'L'oeuvre de Alfred de Musset. Extraits choisis et annotés en vue de la jeunesse, par un ancien professeur de l'Université,' is missing.

Ten volumes

Complete Works of Alfred de Musset
First Poems, 1829-1835 - 1 volume
Poésies Nouvelles, 1835-1852 - 1 volume
Comedies and Proverbs - 3 volumes
News - 1 volume
Tales - 1 volume
The Confession of a Child of the Century - 1 volume
Mixed Literature and Criticism - 1 volume
Posthumous Works - 1 volume

Author: Alfred de Musset
Anno: 1897-1901
New Edition
Publishing House: Paris - Biblioteque-Charpentier Eugene Fasquelle Editeur
Dimensions: 18.7x12.0 cm
Pages: 3484 total: 392 (Volume I) - 324 (Volume II) - 374 (Volume III) - 351 (Volume IV) - 359 (Volume V) - 350 (Volume VI) - 313 (Volume VII) - 355 (Volume VIII) - 404 (Volume IX) - 262 (Volume X)
Non-editorial hardcover covers with spine ribs and titles on the back.
In excellent condition: excellent pages, excellent covers (see the photos).

Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay (Paris, December 11, 1810 – Paris, May 2, 1857) was a French poet, writer, and playwright, one of the emblematic figures of literary romanticism.

Belonging to a wealthy, affectionate, and refined family, he was born in Paris in 1810. His father, Victor de Musset, was a high-ranking official at the Ministry of War and a literary scholar, a deep connoisseur of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose works he edited; Rousseau's figure would be fundamental in the young Alfred's education. At the age of seven, he began attending the prestigious Lycée Henri-IV and by 1824 was already writing poetry; in 1827, he received second prize in Latin dissertation at the Concours général, an award given annually to the best students.

After trying his hand at medicine, law, studying the English language, and playing the piano, Musset soon abandoned these disciplines because he was only interested in literature. From 1828, he began attending Charles Nodier's salon at the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, where he met Alfred de Vigny and Sainte-Beuve; due to his strong inclination towards writing, he quickly became the child prodigy of French Romanticism. At twenty, his emerging literary fame was already accompanied by a reckless lifestyle, characterized by a dandy attitude but also serious problems with alcoholism. Drawn to poetry both for the desire for a fashionable life and genuine vocation, he would dedicate himself fully to art only after his father's death in 1832, who was a victim of a cholera epidemic.

In 1830, the year of the famous Battle of Hernani in defense of Victor Hugo's work, Musset attempted his luck writing for the theater, which at the time was the only literary genre that could guarantee some earnings for authors; but, after the failure of his performance Nuit Vénitienne, Musset would give a 'farewell to the stage (and for a long time)' (from a letter to Prosper Chalas).

In 1833, at a dinner attended by the collaborators of the Revue des Deux Mondes, Musset met George Sand; after a romantic stay with her in Fontainebleau, the couple left for Italy. However, in Venice, the poet fell seriously ill, and Sand betrayed him by having an affair with the doctor who was treating him, Pietro Pagello. Returning alone to Paris, he was only joined by her after a few months; their reconciliation lasted just under a year, troubled by constant quarrels, and ended in March 1835.

Main works from his most prolific period, spanning from 1832 to 1841, include the romantic drama Lorenzaccio, published in 1834 during his tumultuous relationship with George Sand, and in the same year Fantasio and On ne badine pas avec l'amour. He also published his lyrical masterpiece Les Nuits (Nuits de mai, d'août, d'octobre, de décembre, 1835-1837)—on interconnected themes of pain, love, and inspiration—and the autobiographical novel La confession de un figlio del secolo (1836), perhaps his most famous work.

Librarian at the Ministry of the Interior under the July Monarchy, he was dismissed from his position in 1848; later, he became a librarian at the Ministry of Education under the Second Empire. He received the Legion of Honour on April 24, 1845, at the same time that the recognition was also awarded to Honoré de Balzac, and was elected to the Académie française in 1852, after two failed attempts in 1848 and 1850. Between these two years, he had an emotional connection with actress M.lle Despréaux.

Recently, he will still write some stories and some comedies: 'Il faut qu'une porte soit ouverte ou fermée,' Bettine and Carmosine. His fragile health and dedication to absinthe will mark the last years of his life. The sign of 'de Musset,' that is, rhythmic shocks of the neck and head, used in Semiology as a symptom of aortic valve insufficiency, is named after the poet in whom it was first observed.


Tomb of Alfred de Musset at Père-Lachaise Cemetery
He will die, almost forgotten, on May 2, 1857, a victim of all his excesses. He is buried in the Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. In his last will, he requested to be buried under a willow; today, that willow still stands there.

The works
1824 - To my mother.
1826 - To Miss Zoé le Douairin.
A dream, the English opium eater.
1829 - First Poems.
1830 - Tales of Spain and Italy, The Devil's Receipt.
1831 - The cup and the lips, Namouna.
1832 - Spectacle in a chair, what do young girls dream of.
1833 - Les caprices de Marianne, Rolla, André del Sarto.
1833 - Gamiani (attributed).
1834 - Lorenzaccio, Fantasio, You don't joke with love, Une nuit vénitienne, Perdican, Camille and Perdican.
1835/37 - The Nights of May.
1835 - Barberine's Spindle, The Night of May, The Night of December, The Chandelier.
1836 - One should never swear to anything, Letter to M. de Lamartine, Doing without saying, The Night of August, The Confession of a Child of the Century.
1837 - A whim, The October night, At Malibran, Emmeline, The two mistresses, Letters to Dupuis and Cotonet.
1838 - The son of Titian, Frédéric and Bernette, Hope in God, Dupont and Durand, Margot.
1839 - Croisilles
1840 - Sadness, a lost evening.
1841 - Souvenir
1842 - The journey wherever you please, On laziness, History of a white thrush, After a reading.
1844 - Pierre and Camille, The Secret of Javotte, The Van Bruck Brothers.
It is necessary that a door be open or closed, Mademoiselle Mimi Pinson.
1849 - Louison, The Green Habit, One cannot think of everything.
1850 - New Poems, Carmosine.
1851 - Bettine, Faustine.
1853 - The fly
1854 - Tales
1855 - Life and Hope
1865 - Carmosine