Le Bilboquet.
Paris, P. Prault 1714.
(148 x 88 mm.). 54, [1]p. Woodcut bouquet on title.
Contemporary tan calf (extremities rubbed), spine gilt and gilt-lettered (crown and base slightly chipped), red edges, dark green linen marker.
Only Edition of this bizarre allegory in which Reason, Love and Intelligence fight a losing battle against Ignorance, Stupidity, Folly and her son Bilboquet (the French name for the cup-and-ball game). After Bibloquet visits a young bourgeois named Lysidor, he, his lover and her father become obsessed with the pastime, which wreaks havoc in their relationships and daily lives. The mania for the game soon spreads throughout the city and beyond. Bilboquet is finally banished to oblivion by Love, Reason and Intelligence. The book was twice denied a privilege. This the fourth recorded copy. The Bibliothèque nationale de France purchased one in 1938, then found another misclassified in the stacks in 1975. The third we sold in 1987. In good condition (smudges and some spots).
¶Marivaux, Le Bilboquet ed. Rubellin; Pan, “Le Bilboquet, un badinage dangereux? Une étude sur Le Bilboquet de Marivaux” in Quêtes littéraires 13 (2013) 48-57; Jones, A List of French Prose Fiction 23-4; see Quérard’s La France littéraire V: 543.
Price: $4,800.00