NERVAL (Gérard de). - Lot 210

NERVAL (Gérard de). Scenes from oriental life. Les Femmes du Caire. Paris, Fernand Sartorius, 1848. In-8, long-grained brown half-maroquin with corners, gilt fillet, spine decorated with gilt and mosaic caissons, untrimmed, cover and spine (Stroobants). - Scenes from oriental life. I. Women of Cairo. - II. Les Femmes du Liban. Paris, Hippolyte Souverain, 1850. 2 volumes in-8, long-grained green morocco, decorated with straight and curved gilded fillets, gros fers rocaille, ornate spine, inner border, salmon moiré silk lining and endpapers, gilded edges, untrimmed, cover, case (G. Mercier rel. 1939/E. & A. Maylander dor. 1943). Set of 3 volumes. Extremely rare first editions. In January-December 1843, Gérard de Nerval undertook a trip to the Orient, during which he visited Alexandria, Cairo, Beirut, Cyprus, Rhodes, Smyrna, Constantinople, Malta and Naples. In a letter to Dr. Étienne Labrunie dated December 25, 1842, he expressed his need to escape as follows: "Last winter was a deplorable one for me, the despondency robbed me of my strength, the boredom of the little I was doing won me over more and more, and the feeling that I could only excite pity as a result of my terrible illness deprived me even of the pleasure of society. I had to get out of there with a great enterprise that would erase the memory of it all.