Classic Victor Hugo Ruy Blas, Drama 1838 1st Belgium Poor

Description: Classic Victor Hugo Ruy Blas, Drama 1838 1st Belgium Poor First edition, first printing with 1838 on title page. Publisher: Belgium Typographic Society, 1838 Octavo 6" X 4.25" [iv] 5-215 [i Blank]. Original quarter leather binding with green marbled cloth board. Gilt letters to decorative leather spine with six bands. Page edges have marble coloring. No dust jacket. For the opening of the Renaissance Theater on November 8, 1838. Pastedowns and endpapers are marbled. Book Condition: Poor Covers are rubbed. Spine is frayed on bottom. FEP is torn. Previous owners name on half title page and page 1 of the text. Water stain and foxing. Text pages browned. This drama was written in verse and in five acts. The story centers around a practical joke played on the Queen, Maria de Neubourg, by Don Salluste de Bazan, in revenge for being scorned by her. Knowing that his valet, Ruy Blas, has secretly fallen in love with the Queen, and having previously failed to enlist the aid of his scapegrace but chivalrous cousin, Don César, in his scheme, Don Salluste disguises Blas as a nobleman and takes him to court. Intelligent and generous, Blas becomes popular, is appointed prime minister, and begins useful political and fiscal reforms, and conquers the queen's heart. A long speech, 101 lines, in which he contrasts the sordid struggle for sinecures in a decaying monarchy with the glories of Emperor Charles V (King Charles I of Spain), is notable. Don Salluste returns to take his revenge. The Queen and Ruy Blas are betrayed into a compromising situation by Don Salluste, who, when Don César threatens to frustrate his revenge, ruthlessly sacrifices his cousin to his injured vanity. Don Salluste discloses the masquerade by cruelly humiliating Blas – he commands Blas to close the window and pick up his handkerchief, while trying to explain the condition of Spanish politics. Blas kills him and decides to commit suicide with poison. At his dying moment, he is forgiven by the queen who openly declares her love for him. This book is believed to be pirated from the French. The play is a thinly veiled cry for political reform.

Price: 50 USD

Location: Arlington, Texas

End Time: 2025-01-14T01:05:04.000Z

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