[Nicolas-Edme RESTIF DE LA BRETONNE]. Le Palais-Royal. - Lot 97

[Nicolas-Edme RESTIF DE LA BRETONNE]. Le Palais-Royal. A Paris, Au Palais-Royal d'abord ; puis, Partout, Même chés Guillot, 1790. 3 volumes in-12, speckled basane, ornate ribbed spines, red and green morocco titles and endpapers, red edges (modern pastiche binding). 280 pp, 248 pp, 288 pp, 3 unsigned folding frontispieces. First edition. Each volume bears a different subtitle: Les Filles de l'Alée-des-Soupirs; Les Sunamites; Les Converseuses. A very curious work in which the Palais-Royal, the beating heart of Paris at the end of the 18th century, where pretty women were queens, is called upon to become the place for the regeneration of morals. The narrator, who pays the girls of Allée des soupirs, asks them to tell him their story. Thanks to their freshness and beauty, the Sunamites restore vitality to the old men with whom they sleep chastely. Leaving this state, they become singers, lullabies or conversationalists, charming men, like Scheherazade, with the grace of their conversation. Having left prostitution behind, they'll attain the status of citizens. Minor foxing, 4 leaves restored in volume III. Rives Childs, p. 313. Ex-libris Léon Rattier (1920, I, no. 529). A good copy of one of Restif's most curious works.