LIGNE, Prince of] - Immoral Tales. London (Dresden, Walther - Lot 372

LIGNE, Prince of] - Immoral Tales. London (Dresden, Walther Brothers), (1801)–1802. Small 8vo, (1) folio (title page), 4 pp., the last page 4–48, and pp. 49–270, red half-leather with corner pieces, decorated ribbed spine, gilt head. (R. RAPARLIER). VERCRUYSSE 227. First separate edition not cited by Vercruysse, who is familiar only with the title leaf (reproduced on p. 228) without having seen a copy in which it is attached. The *Contes immoraux* appeared in Volume XXIII of the *Mélanges Militaires, Littéraires, et Sentimentaires* (Dresden, 1795–1811). The publisher produced a special booklet signed ABC, consisting of 4 pp. paginated 1, 2, 3, and 4–48, to be attached to the excerpt from the *Mélanges*, which begins in booklet D and is paginated 49–270. Several titles from the *Mélanges* have been published as separate editions, but this one is unknown. The second edition (London, 1802), cited by Gay (I, 707), has 275 pp. In his stories, which form a continuous narrative, the Prince de Ligne claims to be familiar with the society of Grenoble that inspired Laclos’s novel *Les Liaisons dangereuses*.