Le Diable boiteux.

LESAGE Alain-René. Le Diable boiteux.
Paris, Chez La Veuve Barbin, 1707.

In-8 (164 x 99 mm): [6] ff, 318 pp, [5] ff. Full black jansenist morocco, spine with faux-nerves, author and title stamped in gold in the second box, date stamped in gold at the tail of the spine, edges decorated with a double gilt fillet, gilt edges, interior roulette (M. Godillot).

Extremely rare first edition.

‘Copies of this first edition are extremely rare’ (Tchemerzine), and only around ten copies of the first edition have been recorded (Cohen).

This is mainly due to the fact that Lesage reworked the text of the 1726 edition - the earlier editions were then abandoned (Cordier). However, the novel was so successful that thirteen editions were published between 1707 and 1711. Our copy is in second condition, with folio B1 (page 17) hardback and pages 141 to 144 repeated (Tchemerzine).

Lesage dedicated the book to the Spanish Golden Age author Louis Velez de Guevara (1579-1644), since it is an adaptation of El Diablo Cojuelo. Le diable boiteux was ‘one of the most considerable bestsellers of the entire eighteenth century’ (Chatelain).

Slight rubbing to the corners of the second cover and light stains on a few leaves.
From the François Delachaux library, his bookplate.

Tchemerzine, VI, 189 ; Cohen, 628 ; Cordier, Essai bibliographique sur les œuvres d'Alain René-Lesage, le Diable boiteux, Paris, La Haye, Mouton, 1970, pp. 22-23 ; Chatelain, n°178.