Voyages et Aventures d’une Princesse Babylonienne [The Princess of Babylon].

VOLTAIRE (AROUET, François-Marie).

$1,850.00

Item Number: 82403

Geneve:, 1768.

First edition of one of Voltaire’s best-known works of prose. Octavo, original full period calf, gilt titles to the spine, red morocco spine label, raised bands, marbled endpapers. In good condition. Rare and desirable.

“One of Voltaire’s finest romances”, The Princess of Babylon relays the story of the beautiful Formosanta, who travels the world in search of her lover Amazan (Barron, Fantasy Literature I:88). Subtle in its philosophy, Voltaire breaks narrative conventions in this novella to foster Enlightenment values and in the process also “pokes fun at a number of literary traditions” (Pearson, Fables of Reason 196). The novella saw instant success upon publication and was in such demand that it was being illegally pirated in England, and printed under a false imprint of ‘Geneva’ when it was actually printed in London.