Les Petits Ours. Futilités parisiennes.

Les Petits Ours. Futilités parisiennes. ROCHARD (Émile). Paris, Librairie des Bibliophiles, 1874. First Edition. Duodecimo (18 x 12.5 cm); 3 unnumbered leaves + one etching + 171 pp + 4 unnumbered leaves including table. Period brown half-morocco with corners binding, raised bands spine with 5 bands, compartments decorated with fleurons highlighted in red, title and author in gilt letters. Plate by P. Sellier as frontispiece. Scattered foxing, not serious. Very beautiful binding. First edition of this collection of sketches of Parisian manners at the beginning of the Third Republic. Rochard portrays, in light and poetic pieces, the elegances, pleasures, sentiments, and small flaws of Parisian society. The name "Petits Ours" comes from the quote on the title page by Reyne Marguerite: "This work, therefore, of an afternoon will go toward you like little bears, in a heavy and deformed mass, to receive its formation there." Émile Rochard (Wissembourg, 1851 – Paris, 1918) was a writer, playwright, and man of the theater. He published "Les Petits Ours" at the very beginning of his career, at only twenty-three years old, before becoming a figure of the Parisian theatrical world, notably as director of the Théâtre du Châtelet and the Ambigu-Comique.