LA FAYETTE, Madame de] - Zayde. Spanish History, by Monsieur - Lot 410

LA FAYETTE, Madame de] - Zayde. Spanish History, by Monsieur de Segrais. Avec un Traitté de l'Origine des Romans par Monsieur Huet. Paris, Claude Barbin, 1670-1671. 2 vols. pet. in-8, 99 (1), 441 (1) pp. ; (2) ff. 536 pp, light stain on the first four ff. of volume I, small window filled in on the title of volume II, garnet morocco, triple gilt thread on covers, ornate ribbed spine, gilt tr. (pastiche in the 17th c. taste). TCH III, 834. First edition. This novel, set in Spain at the time of the Moorish occupation, is a portrait of the aristocratic circles of the Fronde, and in particular of the great Condé. The imaginary battle of Almaras, which does not appear in the Spanish historiography used by Mme de La Fayette (Mariana), is said to represent the battle of Rocroi, and Consalve's "gesture" a heroic image of Condé's life. Zaïde reflects the same pessimistic conception of love as in Mme de La Fayette's other novels: a melancholy elegy featuring pitiful heroes whose faults are always excusable and whose joys are fleeting. The narrative is interrupted by beautiful poetic descriptions, such as the "marines" of the first part and the moresque tableaux of the second (V. Niderst, ed. Garnier). The novel was published under the signature of Segrais, his secretary. Volume I contains Pierre Daniel Huet's essay in its original edition, one of the first studies of the novelistic genre.