8vo, 3 volumes, FIRST EDITION, advertisements at the end of volumes 2 and 3, original dark blue-green cloth, borders in black on upper cover and in blind on lower cover, spine gilt, brown endpapers, preserved in matching quarter blue morocco folding box

Paul Bourget, with his visiting card loosely inserted ("...de l'Académie française | 20, rue Barbet de Jouy.")

Edel & Laurence A28a

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, when appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

A FINE COPY OF ONE OF THE AUTHOR'S MAJOR NOVELS, depicting the ideological conflict among spiritualist and utopian movements in post-civil war America.

This is one of six of books in this collection from the library of the French novelist and critic Paul Bourget (1852--1935) or his wife (see also lots 128, 131, 133, 139 and 141). James was introduced to the "rather flabby-looking Frenchman, with a pronounced myopia, an unstable glass in one eye, and a shy manner" (Edel, Henry James, The Middle Years 1884--1894, p.50) by Sargent in July 1884. According to Edel Bourget conveyed to James a mixture of careless elegance and deep melancholy. Bourget was to write Cruelle Énigme that summer. "It made him famous in France; and he attached himself to James as a disciple" (op.cit.). James was more interested in Bourget as a conversationalist than as a writer, and advised him in his later journey to America that resulted in the brilliant travel memoir Outre-mer.  Their paths often crossed in Italy, with the Frenchman often co-ordinating his diary with his mentor's. James found his friend "a sympathetic and attractive being with a "brilliant little intelligence" and "one of the most charming and ingenious talkers I ever met" (quoted by Edel, op.cit.) but finally lost patience with his increasingly reactionary views, finding his aristocratic and monarchical vie♓ws intolerable. Nꦚonetheless James, very unusually, preserved all of Bourget's letters to him, so that both sides their correspondence survive.