From Dumas to Kafka, the funny little words of writers to discover at the Carreau du Temple
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The Rare Book and Graphic Arts Fair, held from June 13 to 15 at the Carreau du Temple in Paris, highlights curiosities, such as 19th-century leaflets, to attract potential buyers.
"All the gravity of history, all the caprice of the novel..." : this is how Alexandre Dumas sold his Life of Louis XIV in a prospectus designed to attract buyers. The author of The Three Musketeers advertised his story written in 1844, concluding "boldly deliver our book to the public, certain as we are of its sympathy and support." A salesman could not have done better.
A "free" medal here, discounts of 20% to 33% there, a best-selling author who is self-promoting or a publisher who boasts about the quality of his paper, the collection of "prospectuses" presented by the Clavreuil bookstore is one of those curiosities that one finds while browsing the aisles of the Rare Book and Graphic Arts Fair, which is being held from June 13 to 15 at the Carreau du Temple in Paris.
More than 400 leaflets which bear witness to “the commercial war that publishers waged against each other in the 19th century,” underlines Cathleen Robitaille, expert at…
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