L'Ève future.

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First edition of Villiers' scarce science fiction novel, finely bound in "japonais" style by the Parisian bookbinder Léon Lemardeley (d.1903), known in the late 19th century for "cartonnages of notable quality" (Comparato, p. 36). The binding is a superb example of 19th-century "Japonisme", a vogue for Japanese art in France following the reopening of trade between the two countries after the Meiji Restoration in 1868. The increasing numbers of prints and ceramics imported from Japan into France had an important influence on French art, particularly on the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. Monet, Degas, and Van Gogh each owned large collections of ukiyo-e prints; one of those in Van Gogh's possession is visible in the background of his Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889). L'Ève future, which popularized the word and concept of the "android", is the first of two influential works by Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, a proudly penurious French aristocrat, the other being his Romantic play Axël (1890). Situated somewhere between the classical myth of Pygmalion, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and Fritz Lang's Metropolis, L'Ève future centres on a caricature of the futurist inventor, Thomas Edison, who creates an ideal mechanical woman. A key text of the decadent movement, the work is still influential, and the 2004 Studio Ghibli sequel to Ghost in the Shell opens by quoting a line from the novel: "If our gods and hopes are nothing but scientific phenomena, then it must be said that our love is scientific as well". Frank L. Comparato, Books for the Millions: A History of the Men Whose Methods and Machines Packaged the Printed Word, 1971. Octavo (185 x 115 mm). Attractively bound by Lemardeley (his ink stamp to front pastedown) in contemporary three-quarter calf, twin red-brown morocco labels, spine and covers ruled in gilt, sides with embossed Japanese fan design in brown, red, and gilt, silk bookmarker, original illustrated wrappers bound in. Wrappers illustrated by François Gorguet. Spine slightly darkened, corners lightly rubbed, binding and contents well-preserved: a near-fine copy. Seller Inventory # 168804

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