Alain-Rene Lesage (1668-1747) produced a number of novels, plays and adaptations, the best known of which are The Devil Upon Two Sticks (1707), Turcaret (1709), and Gil Blas (1715–1735). A summary of The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane provides an example of the classic definition of what a picaresque novel is. Gil Blas is born poor. He is educated by his uncle and starts to develop promise for a decent future. This promise goes by the wayside when he is forced to help robbers as he travels off to college. Facing jail, he becomes a valet of which he remains for a number of years. As such, he sees all sorts of people of all classes, in all sorts of situations. This results in Blas becoming extremely malleable in dealing with all manner of situations and is able to use his wit to his benefit. He becomes a favorite of the king, a secretary to the prime minister and eventually is able to retire to a castle and a fortune.
The early days of the Limited Editions Club (LEC) always retains a special luster for me. The selections were excellent, the quality outstanding and the length George Macy went to establish a remarkably high reputation of the club’s output was always on full display. The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, by Alain-Rene Lesage, published by the LEC in 1937, is a good example. While the book itself is nicely done, I would not claim it to be one of the greats of the LEC in terms of design, titles, or ‘wow’ factor. In fact, it is not one of my favorites and in some ways is rather bland. However, it is the mix of people that are associated with this edition which allows it to be considered collectible and a worthy effort.
The translation used is that of Tobias Smollett of The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle fame (which is very appropriate since Gil Blas is often considered the last great picaresque novel, a genre within which Smollett excelled). The introduction is by J. B. Priestley, an accomplished English novelist who was at the peak of his considerable powers around the time of this LEC publication. Water color illustrations are by the famous English illustrator John Austen (who work is highlighted in two recent Books and Vines articles, the aforementioned Peregrine Pickle edition and also The Adventures of Harlequin), and they are hand-colored by Daniel Jacomet (an extremely accomplished printer whose ‘Daniel Jacomet Process’ combining color collotype and stencil created reproduction quality unmatched by pretty much any other process). In this case, collotype was done by the well known (at the time) lithographic firm of Vincent Brooks, Day & Son of London. The edition was designed, printed and bound by John Johnson, Printer to the University of Oxford. All in all a very impressive set of people to be associated with publishing a single book.
About the Edition
- Translated by Tobias Smollett
- Introduction by J. B. Priestley
- Water color illustrations by John Austen
- Collotype by Vincent Brooks, Day & Son, London
- Hand-colored by Daniel Jacomet, Paris
- Designed, printed and bound by John Johnson, Printer to the University of Oxford
- Set in monotype Fournier on William Nash special paper
- Bound in half-gray linen, gold-stamped, blue linen sides
- Two volumes, 740 pages, 7 1/2″ x 11 3/8″
- Limited to 1500 copies, signed by Austen
Pictures
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{Ed. Note: Apologies for some pictures being a bit out of focus; these pictures were taken at a book store (Book Gallery in Phoenix), not at my controlled picture taking environment.}
My copy is in mint condition as well, paper dust jackets and slipcase too, and has the very interesting provenance of having come from the library of famous film director Frank Capra. Capra, to the best of my knowledge, never made a period film in his considerable output, but the deep vein of comedy and picaresque quality of films like “It Happened One Night” and “Meet John Doe” owe at least a nod to Gil Blas.
In terms of the illustrations, I like them better than the ones Austen did for Vanity Fair, which are a little too coy, and not as well as the ones he did for Peregrine Pickle, which I think are his best for the LEC.
All in all, a fine edition of a most influential, though sad to say, now-forgotten literary landmark.
I have yet to read Gil Blas, having only read parts of it. I have all of the large quartos illustrated by John Austen, including The Faerie Queen for which he did the decorations. I shall have to get busy on it since it is a long book.
My copy is in Mint condition with the paper dust covers intact. Two things which I think are interesting: 1) Le Sage wrote a Spanish picaresque novel without ever travelling to Spain and 2) One of Le Sage’s admirers was Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon was a bibliophile and took a wagon load of books with him on all his campaigns. He had a wagon load which he took to Moscow, but this time his books did not make it back to Paris.
When Napoleon graduated from artillery school, his first book purchase in Paris was Le Sage’s novel.