BARBEY D'AUREVILLY (Jules)

L'Amour impossible. Chronique parisienne. Paris, Librairie nouvelle, A. Bourdilliat et Cie, 1859. In-12, paperback, untrimmed, black chagrin spine folder and slipcase (Devauchelle). Uncommon first in-12 edition of Barbey's first published novel. The original edition dates from 1841. A chronicle inspired by the writer's youthful impossible love affair with the worldly marquise Armance du Vallon. Autograph letter from the author on the title page: Ces couillonneries du temps passé offerts à Poncet par amitié humble. The Poncet to whom Barbey offers his "couillonneries" is Alexandre-Gabriel Poncet-Deville, a Bordeaux wine merchant and one of the writer's faithful friends: Incessantly, you dear Trebutien, you will see another friend of mine in Caen. This one is not an artist and a scholar in the manner of César Daly, but he is also a man full of nobility and devotion to me. His name is M. Poncet-Deville. He's a merchant, but he's a thinking head and the most ardent of ardent Catholics. He has all the makings of a party man (Barbey d'Aurevilly, letter to Trebutien, October 13, 1847, in Correspondance générale, II, 1847/10, p. 99). Numerous scratches