La Vie et les Opinions de Tristram Shandy.

STERNE (Laurence). La Vie et les Opinions de Tristram Shandy. Traduites de l’Anglois de Stern, par M. Frénais.
Neuchâtel, de l’Imprimerie de la Société Typographique, 1777-1785. 4 volumes, 12mo, untrimmed, decorated wrappers.
Laurence Sterne’s masterpiece translated into French: a most attractive copy, as issued, untrimmed, with hypnotically charming contemporary decorated paper wrappers.

For twenty years before the Revolution (1769-1789), the Neuchâtel Société Typographique spread in Europe the main publications of the Enlightenment – novels, encyclopedias, travel accounts, and “philosophical” books. The Société Typographique very rarely launched first editions, specializing in counterfeits of contemporary bestsellers – like several of its European competitors – at a time when there was no international official rule on intellectual property. Laurence Sterne’s great comic novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, ranked among the hottest bestsellers at the time. It first appeared in 1759-1767, and was reprinted and translated numerous times. The first French translation of the first two volumes was published in 1776, the last two in 1785: the Société Typographique copied them shortly after. (Schlup, Trésors de l’édition neuchâteloise, 1981, p. 67.)

The stenciled paper used for the wrappers is of great decorative effect and typical of the 18th century habits.