A PARODY OF DON QUIXOTE BY THE AUTHOR OF FALSE CONFIDENCES. - Lot 240

A PARODY OF DON QUIXOTE BY THE AUTHOR OF FALSE CONFIDENCES. FALSE CONFIDENCES. MARIVAUX (Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de). PHARSAMOND OU LE DON QUICHOTTE FRANCAIS. The Hague, Jean Van Duren, 1739. Two volumes in one in-12 (fr. , 2 ff, 255 pp // 220 pp), full basane, spine ribbed and decorated with fleurons (worn contemporary binding). Only this second edition is mentioned by Palau (152265). It is ignored by Tchemerzine and Brunet. It is illustrated with an unsigned frontispiece depicting Faramond (sic) on horseback. It is in the Bibliothèque de Catalogne. The first edition dates from 1737, but the work was written in 1712. The anonymous first edition is entitled "Les Nouvelles Folies Romanesques", which we find here as the running title. A disclaimer warns us that this new title "Don Quichotte Français" is more suited to the Author's aim, which in this work is to imitate the ingenious Michel de Cervantes". Bardon (D. Q. en France pp 457-470) : "Marivaux deems ridiculous the exaltation of the heart, the generous and naive idealism, the exaggeration in language and sentiment... he has written against the extraordinary and the false, a parody... A buffoonish condemnation of the novel. The whole book will be nothing but the amused account of a bizarre gallant intrigue. " The influence of Cervantes on Marivaux can still be seen in a third novel: "La voiture embourbée" (The Mired Car).