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(BRET, Antoine). Memoires sur la vie de mademoiselle de Lenclos, par M. B****. Qui doivent preceder & servir d'avant premiere Partie a celles de ses Lettres a M. le Marquis de Sevigne, qui suivent.
Amsterdam (Paris?): Chez Francois Joly, 1751, 1750. 12mo., contemporary brown calf binding, red leather spine label and raised bands, viii, 120 pp; viii, 120 pp; 128 pp. With half-title page. With a frontis portrait of Lenclos. Lettres de Mademoiselle Ninon De Lenclos au Marquis de Sevigne in two parts with individual title pages and separate pagination. Light dampstain to title page and affecting upper margins of some leaves; edges and corners worn, front and rear joint starting, with splitting to front inner hinge, but still attached; small chips to label and head and foot of spine, otherwise a good copy.
Known for her wit and charm, Anne De Lenclos, known as Ninon (1620-1705) was popular among intellectual and elite social circles, “her salon was frequented by men of letters (Boileau, La Fontaine, Racine, Moliere, and others), ‘libertins' (q.v.), artists, and members of high society.” (Harvey and Heseltine, ‘Oxford Companion to French Literature', p. 407). Antoine Bret (1717-1792) was a prolific French writer and dramatist.
The address of Amsterdam is spurious: published in Paris by Jean-Baptiste-Claude II Bauche and Jacques III Rollin (BNF: FRBNF30159142). Copies of the Memoires and the Lettres are found separately, as well as bound together. Later editions appear to include both. $650