Lettres de Madame du Montier à la Marquise de*** sa fille, avec les réponses.
Lyon: Pierre Bruyset Ponthus, 1758. An early edition of this work, written in the form of an epistolary novel, which was first published in Lyon in 1756. It went through a number of editions and was an important work in the literature of female education. Spine extremities lightly worn. A very good copy. Contemporary sheep, gilt-decorated spine, edges stained red. Twelvemo. [10], 406 pp. Item #12439
Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (1711-80) wrote over seventy books for young people, mostly collections of moral and instructive tales. Born in Rouen, she married unhappily, and then went to London in 1745 to become a governess. She began producing magazines and pedagogical treatises. She is best known for her Nouveau Magazine français, a literary and scientific compilation for young readers (1750-5), and the Magasin pour les enfans (1757), both published in London. The latter contains her most famous version of Beauty and the Beast, an abridgment of Madame de Villeneuve’s original text. “…she is interesting chiefly for her efforts—manifested before Rousseau’s Emile—to make education enjoyable” (New Oxford Companion to Literature in French).
Price: $450.00