GONCOURT (Edmond and Jules de). Manette Salomon. Paris: Librairie internationale; Brussels, Leipzig: A. Lacroix, Verboeckhoven & Ce, 1868. - 2 volumes in-18, light blue cloth with bradel, smooth spine decorated with a gilt fleuron, untrimmed (period binding). Second edition. "This novel by the two Goncourt brothers (1867) is a human comedy of painting. The main hero sees his talent gradually ruined by the woman he loves, his model and mistress, Manette Salomon. His friend is another artist, also a failure, but through laziness and a taste for jokes. In counterpoint, a genius inspired by Rousseau, Millet, Corot, and a successful worldly and official painter. This plot brings to life the entire history of painting between 1840 and 1860, in the shadow of Ingres and Delacroix, alongside the Barbizon School. We see the École des Beaux-Arts, the Villa Médicis, the Salons. (Arguments of the Gallimard publishing house for the reissue of the work in the Folio classique edition). EXAMPLE OF THE POET AND WRITER JOSÉ MARIA DE HEREDIA, including this handwritten letter from Jules de Goncourt on the false title of the first volume: " To Mr J. M. de Heredia // cordial souvenir // E. and J. de Goncourt " Good copy in contemporary binding . Spine slightly browned.