ROMANTIC LITERATURE. URANISM. SUICIDE. CUSTINE (Astolphe, ma - Lot 170

ROMANTIC LITERATURE. URANISM. SUICIDE. CUSTINE (Astolphe, marquis de). Le Monde comme il est. Paris, Eugène Renduel, 1835. 2 volumes in-8, [4]-360 pp. and [4]-438 p., large margins. Contemporary glazed fawn half-calf with corners, spine ribbed and decorated with gilt roulettes and filets, cold filets, gilt title and tomaison, gilt and brown filets and roulettes, marbled endpapers and edges. Very rare. Unique edition of Custine's masterpiece, which caused controversy on its publication. A dark, realistic novel, also known as "Le monde tel qu'il est", a critical, satirical exploration of 19th-century European society. Sharp political observations on culture and mores - particularly in Russia, whose despotism he criticizes - at a time of social tension. Scorned, notably by Apponyi, attaché to the Austrian embassy: "A picture of a society rotten to the core, a society without faith, without law, without belief, without remorse and without pleasure", he says: "If the world were as he sees it, it would be to flee...". (Vingt-cinq ans à Paris). Baudelaire considers him the inventor of the character of the ugly girl. Provenance: Library of the Duc d'Uzès at the Château de Bonnelles (Yvelines), with his engraved ex libris pastedown and a cold-stamped cachet on the faux-titre. Emmanuel de Crussol d'Uzès (1842-1872), soldier and politician, was the creator of the famous Bonnelles Rally. The château was built in 1849 for Duke Giraud d'Uzès by architects Froelicher and Parent. Some foxing, missing upper part of spines, slight wear, trace of label at head of first cover (t.1), small loss in lower margin of p. 167-8 (t.1).