BALZAC (H. de). Le Père Goriot. Histoire parisienne. P., Wer - Lot 43

BALZAC (H. de). Le Père Goriot. Histoire parisienne. P., Werdet, 1835. 2 vol. in-8, marbled calf, spines decorated with blue title-pieces, marbled tr. (Contemporary binding). ORIGINAL EDITION, very rare, of this masterpiece. Extremely rare copy in full contemporary binding, bearing the name of its first owner "M. le comte de Gestas" on a blue piece at the bottom of the spine. It does not include the preface, which was published a long time later and is mostly missing, and the table leaf of the first volume has not been preserved (qq. tiny freckles). With Père Goriot, Balzac gave concrete form to a fundamental idea that would give birth to La Comédie humaine: "the return of characters. Indeed, it was from Père Goriot onwards that Balzac made systematic use of this technique. Taking up his earlier works [...] he changes the characters' names to integrate them into the novelistic cycle novelistic cycle he had conceived. Le Père Goriot can therefore be considered the keystone of the edifice" (Laffont-Bompiani). EXCEPTIONAL CONDITION.