GONCOURT (Edmond et Jules de) Sophie Arnould d'après sa corr - Lot 176

GONCOURT (Edmond et Jules de) Sophie Arnould d'après sa correspondance et ses mémoires inédits Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1857. - In-12, 195 x 120: (2 ff.), 197 pp., (1 f.), printed cover. Half red morocco, spine ribbed and decorated, untrimmed, cover and spine preserved (Bianchi). Oberlé, 525. 1110 copies of the first edition of this biography of the actress and singer Sophie Arnould (1740-1802), based on manuscripts and letters by the author, acquired by the Goncourt brothers from Charavay. This copy is one of 10 copies on laid paper, the only one, with only 30 copies on plain paper, containing a two-page appendix reproducing Doctor Morand's certificate concerning Sophie Arnould's health, as well as the licentious passages that had been censored in the text. A portrait of Sophie Arnould, on chine collé, engraved by Adolphe Pierre Riffaut after Delatour, is enclosed separately. A good first edition copy, with the good cover that announces Baudelaire's "Les Fleurs du mal" to appear in April 1857. Beautifully bound by Bianchi, a bookbinder from Nice who practiced during the second quarter of the 20th century. Restorations to the cover.