Le Rouge et le Noir

First edition, "very rare and extremely sought-after" (Clouzot), one of 750 copies on laid paper, with title vignettes engraved by Henri Porret after Henry Monnier.

Skilful restoration of a tear at the foot of a page, with slight damage to a letter. A rare copy with no foxing.

Green half calf binding, smooth spines with arabesques stamped in gilt, black title labels and volume labels; marbled paper boards, spine boards and endpapers, speckled edges, later bindings in the Romantic style.

Stendhal began writing 'Le Rouge et le Noir' under the Restoration and completed it just four months after the July Revolution of 1830. The seminal novel was published in the last weeks of 1830. All critics immediately praised the novel's exceptional qualities, although even its most enthusiastic supporters were shocked by the hero's harsh judgment of society and Jacobinism.

A handsome first-edition copy of this great classic of French literature.