La Femme et le Pantin

Paris: Librairie Borel, 1899. First illustrated edition. Softcover. g. Octavo. 188 pp. Original decorative glassine over illustrated wrappers with blue lettering on front cover. Frontispiece. Illustrated title page. One of the great novels about obsessive love, "La Femme et le Pantin" (The Woman and The Puppet) was first published in 1898 by Mercure de France, and is considered Louys' masterpiece. It has inspired five film versions, including von Sternberg's in 1935 and Bunuel's in 1977. This novel - which drew some of its inspiration from Bizet's Carmen, (truncated) as well as a particular episode in Casanova's Memoirs - is a distillation of decadent themes that holds good from one fin-de-siecle to another, a cautionary tale whose title acknowledges that for a woman to be fatale requires the complicity of a male puppet. The novel opens during the boisterous Seville Carnival of 1896 during which André Stevenol, an amorously-inclined young Frenchman, succeeds in attracting the attention of the alluring Concha Perez. A rendezvous is arranged, but before it can take place André meets Don Mateo, who, in a long monologue recounts his affair with Concha and seeks to dissuade the younger man from becoming embroiled with the 'worst of women', who had teased, ridiculed and humiliated him. First illustrated edition with plates in two states, the second suite printed in red. Illustrations by A. Calbet and J. Dodina (15 headpieces, 13 tailpieces, and 15 full-page plates). Glassine partly torn and missing on spine and at upper front joint. Sporadic closed tears along edges of wrappers. Spine creased. Head of spine slightly chipped. Front hinge starting. Minor and sporadic foxing along paper margin. Text in French. Glassine in overall poor to fair, wrappers in good- to good, interior in good+ condition. (Inventory #: 7463)