Mademoiselle de Maupin

Eight wood engravings by Howard Simon. The frontispiece is included in the photos posted. Clean text and interior. Tight, square binding. Decorative silver gilt spine and covers. Uncut edges. Some pages remain still attached to the previous page. Includes a contemporaneous bookmark from Ives Washburn. Pale blue top stain still intact and vibrant. I have other titles by this author. From Wikipedia "Théophile Gautier, when asked to write a story about d'Aubigny, instead produced the novel Mademoiselle de Maupin, published in 1835, taking aspects of the real La Maupin as a starting point, and naming some of the characters after her and her acquaintances. The central character's life was viewed through a romantic lens as "all for love". D'Albert and his mistress Rosette are both in love with the androgynous Théodore de Sérannes, whom neither of them knows is really Madeleine de Maupin. A performance of Shakespeare's As You Like It, in which La Maupin, who is passing as Théodore, plays the part of Rosalind playing Ganymede, mirrors the cross-dressing pretense of the heroine. The celebration of sensual love, regardless of gender, was radical, and the book was banned by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice and authorities elsewhere."