Under Sappho’s spell
May 1st, 2008 by houghtonmodern
Popular French novelist Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897) first published his realist novel Sapho: moeurs parisiennes in 1884. Two years later, Henry Vizetelly published this first English translation of the work in London. (Vizetelly would later gain notoriety for his nearly-unexpurgated English translations of Emile Zola’s novels.)
In the novel, a young artist falls in love with his seductive model, and ultimately is destroyed by her. Partly based on his own experiences, Daudet wrote it as a cautionary tale for his sons. He was already suffering from the effects of a syphilitic paralysis that would eventually kill him.
This edition, a beautiful example of late 19th-century English publishing, contains thirty wood engravings from designs by Louis Montegut.
*FC8.D2646.Eg886s. Purchased with the Roger Stoddard Book Fund. Images may not be reproduced without permission.