L'Ecumoire, Histoire Japonoise Par Mr. De Crebillon Le Fils. A Londres, Aux Dépens De La Compagnie, MDCCXXXV.
L'Ecumoire, Japanese Story by Mr. de Crébillon the Younger. London, at the Expense of the Company, 1735.
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An extremely interesting work upon which Voltaire remarked "I don't know anything as crazy as this book. If I had done it it would have been burned."
Crébillon, a French writer known for his risqué style, used this work to satirise both Eastern exoticism and French society of the time under the guise of a fictional Japanese setting to escape censorship. The narrative ostensibly tells a tale set in Japan, but the work is actually an allegorical critique of the frivolities and moral ambiguities of French high society, particularly under the rule of Louis XV.
The term "écumoire" (skimmer) in the title itself has a double meaning: it references both a kitchen utensil and a figure who skims the surface of society, missing depth and substance - a dig at the shallow morals Crébillon targeted in French high society.
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Size: 80 x 134 mm (approx.)
Condition:
[(2), frontis, t.p., i-xviii, 4pp., (1), 208pp., frontis, t.p., 4pp., 328pp., (2)]
Full brown calf binding with decorative gilt on the spine, lacking tooled labels. Binding rubbed and scuffed. Wear to headcap and tailcap. Both boards attached with front joint cracked, and both hinges and rear joint starting. Shelf and edge wear. Spotted page edges dulled, top edge darkened as often. Text block very clean with very light toning and occasional foxing. Table from volume two detached.
