The Court of Louis XIV
in Its Late Period after Le Brun
in Red Morocco
Saint-Simon – Weigand, Wilhelm (ed.). The Court of Louis XIV. From the Memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon. In German. 3rd, enlarged edition. Leipsic, Insel, 1925. Large 8vo (26 x 18 cm). 526 pp., 1 leaf. With
17 plates + folded genealogical tree .
Red orig. morocco designed by E. R. Weiß with stylized L under crown accompanied by two Bourbon fleurs-de-lis as front cover vignette, beside the title backplate repeated on the back fourfold without the crown and enclosed by lines & ornamental borders, front cover line, all gilt tooled, blue marbled fly-leaves & yellow bookmark ribbon. Yellow edges.
(Sarkowski 1388 VA.) – In the binding of the DELUXE EDITION (100 copies) of the first edition of 1913 and on moldmade paper the status of present copy supposedly is the same likewise and present then, too, in adequately fine copy with only quite minimal bumps of three cover corners, the bottom edge of the back cover, and, somewhat more, that of the back cover itself.
Weigand (1863-1949), proved Insel author and also by his 1928 novel The Voyage to the Island of Love (Watteau’s Cythera, see also Ridinger’s Cythera Lady) “devoted to the gallant France of the 18th century” (Martini), was in such a manner the qualified pen plain and simple to convey to the newer time the great critic, why, hater of Louis, Saint-Simon in the essence (pp. 229-526 in the translation of Arthur Schurig) and per profound synopsis The Court of Louis XIV and the Classical Culture of the French (pp. 5-227).
“ About the writer Saint-Simon, as about the master of a particular style, there is no diversity of judgement, from the moment his (monumental) memoirs became known he was considered as a phenomenon. When one compares him with the masters of the classic prose of his time he appears quite surprisingly modern. He does not give a damn about academic rules, but draws as master of the language on plentiful resources … As mass actor of a complete society there is, with respect to the whole, barely no one like him in world literature … he writes with his nerves, not with his mind … The following … quite limited selection … comprises … just the time when the duke appeared before the public, up to the death of Louis XIV (1715) ”
(Weigand 225 ff.).
Louis de Rouvroy, Duke of Saint-Simon (1675-1755) thus has just experienced the not quite untroubled late period of the Sun King. Witness of his glorious days, witness of what constituted the proverbial Grand Siècle with Charles Le Brun as one of the brightest stars he was by no means. Indispensable he is all the same.
Offer no. 15,278 / EUR 590. / export price EUR 561. (c. US$ 787.) + shipping
