L'HEROÏNE MOUSQUETAIRE
First Amsterdam edition, published the same year as the Paris first, of this "wildly popular" (Wiggin) novel about a woman who disguises herself as a man and fights in the French army.
Very good plus.
Price: $3,000.00
L'HEROÏNE MOUSQUETAIRE
A terrific cross-dressing plot from the early years of the development of the French novel, in which a Béarnaise woman who loves hunting and weaponry becomes a soldier in the Dutch War (1672-78). Taking on the name of Saint-Alban, she experiences many dangers and adventures before finally being mortally wounded in battle.
In form L'HEROÏNE is a nouvelle galante, a then-new kind of French novel in which a fictional story is set among mostly real events. Advertised as a "true history," it was based on a widely reported story in 17th-century French newspapers of one Christine de Meyrac (whose actual existence is nevertheless disputed). The novel was exceptionally popular, going through seven more editions in Amsterdam alone through 1744, as well as translations into Dutch, Italian, and English (THE HEROINE MUSQUETEER; OR THE FEMALE WARRIER [sic], 1678).
We find very little scholarship on this text in English; one French source describes it as "little known but deserving to be reread, not only for its literary qualities but also because it treats cross-dressing in a novel way" (Desrosiers). An update to the chivalric romances with a gender-bending twist, worthy of further study.
Read more: Wiggin, Novel Translations: The European Novel and the German Book; Roy, "L'heroïne mousquetaire de Préchac ou la galerie des mauvais amants," in L'errance au XVIIe siècle; Desrosiers, Le travestissement féminin dans L'héroïne mousquetaire.
The Object
Amsterdam: Jacques le Jeune [Daniel Elzevir], 1677-1678. Long 24mo, 5'' x 2.75''. Four parts bound in one. Parts I-II dated 1677; parts III-IV dated 1678. Contemporary full vellum, manuscript title and dark brown goatskin shelf labels to spine, yapp edges. 110, [2]; [4], 99, [1]; 96; 95, [1] pages. Two engraved bookplates to front endpapers; small early ink notation to second fly leaf. Soil to top edge, lighter soil and some spotting to boards. Firm.
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