Letters From a Portuguese Nun to an Officer in the French Army. Being a Reproduction of the Edition of 1817
by: N/A

Hardcover. NY, Brentano's , reprint, 1904, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, cloth spine with printed paper label; gray printed paper over cardboard boards. In 1669, a Parisian bookseller published a slim volume called Portuguese Letters, which unveiled a love affair between a young Portuguese nun and a French officer that had occurred a few years earlier during a war-torn period in Portugal. The book contained 12 passionate love letters from the nun when the officer was forced to return to France. The letters took Paris by storm. They spoke of love in a manner so direct, so precise, and so raw, they sent shivers of recognition through the sophisticated stratums of polite society. Equally remarkable was the mystery that surrounds the letters: the author was unknown, and most people assumed they were the fictional product of a French aristocrat. Copy of the 1817 London edition including a frontispiece portrait of the nun writing a letter. Clean copy.