Livre de Cent-et-une

Le Livre des Cest-et-un (The Book of a Hundred-and-One). (1831) First Edition. Ladvocat: Paris. Frontispiece by Henry Monnier. Paperback Octavo in Ten Volumes, 421 pp. each.

Volume 5

 
This panoramic Romanticist view of Parisian life during the movement's period of most intense activity is not only a rich literary and historical resource, but also a testimony to the breadth, diversity, cameraderie and solidarity of the movement.

It was not until later in the 19th Century that experimental and avant-garde writing as such developed its own market, and dedicated publishers have become (sometimes) able to design business models to focus exclusively on such work's publication (keeping in mind that the mimeograph revolution, which would allow small runs to be published at a low overhead to be distributed as gifts or in trade, was 130 years in the future). Until then, publishers were forced to hedge financially risky experimental work with sure-thing mainstream publications to absorb the losses usually incurred by avant-garde books. Anything could disrupt this delicate balance: an unexpected flop, fines from government censors, a sudden change in public taste (not yet controlled by the still-nascent media industry), or personal tragedy could bankrupt a publisher, especially one dependent on cutting-edge literature.

The Romanticist publisher François-Pierre Ladvocat was one of the leading publishers of Romanticist and experimental French literature between 1821 and 1840, as well as translations of British and German Romanticism. He was described as an intellectual whirlwind, and while he supported writers from a wide variety of camps, he was firmly committed to the Romanticist cause. He was first involved with publishing work by the Arsenal group: Charles Nodier, Victor Hugo, Vigny, Lamartine, Saint-Beuve, and others, many of whom are represented in this archive. Throughout his publishing career, he braved the vagaries of a still-emerging and unpredictable literary market and consistently took chances on new writers and experimental work. His bookshop and reading-room was also an important meeting-place for the Romanticist community, and he stocked most of the small journals and reviews that made up the literary underground of the period.

Ladvocat was also a dandy; unlike the aristocratic dandies of the Jockey Club but like many Romanticist dandies such as Alfred de Musset, Roger de Beauvoir, and Charles Baudelaire, his income was not sufficient for his habit. Between his personal debts and his financial risks on progressive literature, compounded by the strains of increasing literary censorship, he was forced into bankruptcy in 1833. In response, dozens of writers from across literary camps came together to organise a campaign to save the press. (Here's a contemporary article on the situation and review of the anthology.)

It took the form of this project: a massive, multi-volume anthology in which the whole panorama of Parisian society and daily life – including the underground network of intersecting subcultures – would be chronicled from a satirical and generally (though not exclusively) Romanticist perspective. A glance through the voluminous tables of contents below indicate how detailed and diverse this survey was; the set constitutes a treasury of potential translation and research. Reactions were also diverse, and those by English reviewers indicate that Romanticism, in its self-declared and militantly experimental French form, was even more threatening to mainstream anglophone readers than to their counterparts in France (a situation which has never ceased to be the case).

The collection was successful (though Ladvocat went out of business around 1840), and went on to a second series of ten further volumes. There was some criticism close to home: the Romanticist-dandyist journal Le Dandy, in a semi-satirical review, not surprisingly praises the Ladvocat press and bookshop to the skies, but nonetheless accuses the anthology of sacrificing quality for quantity – facetiously worrying that he might end up asking mythical gnomes and salamanders to write for him, or – worse – the fashionable writer Ancelot, who had recently premiered a play parodying Dandyism.
 
 Its impact was great enough that a second series was published a few years later; more than fifty years after, it inspired a similar anthology of the same name and including some of the same writers, and sons of others; see "Anthologies and Periodicals" for the archive copy that belonged to the playwright Ludavic Halévy.

This rare full set of the initial 10-volume series was almost certainly originally owned by somebody fully engaged within the Romanticist community, for all of its over 4,000 pages have been cut, and therefore presumably read. The books are large, dense paperbacks, which implies that their owner was, moreover, not particularly wealthy, though they were well-taken care of. A substantial enough proportion of the intended readership was in the same situation that Ladvocat designed and printed elaborate wraps for the spines. Though some of these wraps are peeling and some of the bindings beginning to loosen, the volumes are in surprisingly good condition overall, for neatly two-century-old paperbacks that have been thoroughly read.

Only one image has posted here; each volume's cover and spine are identical with the obvious exceptions of volume numbers. The full table of contents of each volume is listed below:

Vol. 1

1. Jules Janin, "Asmodée" ("Asmodeus)
2. E. Roch, "La Palais-Royal" ("The Royal Palace")
3. A. Bazin, "Le Bourgeois de Paris" ("The Paris Bourgeois")
4. Auguste-Marseille Barthélemy & Joseph Méry, "Le Jardin des plantes" ("The Garden of Plants")
5. Gustave Drouineau, "Une Maison de la Rue l'École de Médecine" ("A Mason of Medical-School Street")
6. Charles Nodier, "Le Bibliomane" ("The Bibliomaniac") This story, still current in French bibliographic circles and worthy of translation, exerted an important influence on avant-garde bibliography and archiving through its melding of Frenetic Romanticism,  Roman-à-clef, and sociological treatise. Nodier was, among much else, director of the Arsenal Library, the second-largest in Paris.
7. A. Jal, "Les Soirées d'Artistes" ("The Artists' Parties) This essay, worthy of eventual translation, surveys the emergence, in the wake of the 1789 and 1830 Revolutions, of new ways that artists organised themselves socially.
8. Philarète Chasles, "La Conciergerie" ( "The Conciergerie Prison")
9. P.L. Jacob (Paul Lacroix/Bibliophile Jacob), "Les Bibliothèques Publiques" (The Public Libraries") A disciple of Nodier who would later fill his role as head of the Arsenal Library, Bibliophile Jacob, as he was often known, was the foremost Frenetic Romanticist bibliographer and archivist, as well as a novelist of historical Gothic Fiction and historian of Medieval culture, collaborating as researcher for Hugo on Notre Dame de Paris (known in English as The Hunchback of Notre Dame). 
10. Béranger, "Chanson à M. Chateaubriand" ("Song for Mr. Chateaubriand")

Vol. 2

1. A. Bazin, "La Chambre des Députés" ("The Chamber of Deputies")
2. Népomusène Lemercier, "Candidats académiques et Politiques" (Academic and Political Candidates)
3. Ernest Fouinet, "Un Voyage en Omnibus, de la la barrière du Trône à la barrière de l'Étoile" (A Trip on the Bus, from the Barrier of the Throne to the Star)
4. André Delrieu, "Les Enfants-Trouvés" (The Abandoned Children) On the chronic problem of infants abandonned at Parisian orphanages STATS FROM 'YOUTH AND HISTORY
5. Auguste Luchet, "Le Salon de Lafayette" (Lafayette's Salon)
6. Charles Saint-Beuve, "Des Soirées Littéraires, ou Les Poètes entre eux" (Literary Soirées, or the Poets Amongst Themselves) The leading mainstream Romanticist critic presents a history of literary collectivity in France, culminating in the Cénacle Group, of which he was a central member. Conspicuously missing is any mention of the Petit-Cénacle group, which was at the height of its activity and influence at the time but against whom Saint-Beuve was leading a critical campaign.
7. Charles Nodier, "Polichinelle" (Punchinello)
8. Jules Janin, "L'Abbé Chatel et son Église" (The Abbé Chatel and his Church)
9. Amédée Pommier, "Charlatans, Jongleurs, Phénomènes vivants, etc." (Tricksters, Jugglers, Freaks, etc.)
10. Casimir Cordellier-Délanoue, "Un Atelier de la Rue de l'Ouest" (A Studio on Rue de l'Ouest) The editor of the ultra-Romanticist mouthpiece Tribune Romantique here describes the studio of an avant-garde artist, in an entertaining story that warrants translation and could be usefully compared with O'Neddy's description of Jehan Duseigneur's studio and Gautier's descriptions in "The Bowl of Punch" and other stories from The Jeunes-France. 
11. Alexandre Dumas, "Le cocher de cabriolet" (The Cabby) In this rambling tale, Dumas (at this time just beginning to grow into his fame) describes a conversation with a Parisian cab-driver about the work of his friends and enemies, providing a tongue-in-cheek glimpse into how the Romanticist-Classicist war was perceived and discussed by average Frenchmen.
12. Le Comte [Alexis?] de Saint-Priest, "Les deux Saint-Simoniens" (The Two Saint-Simonians) In this extremely clever satire, a follower of the Duc Louis de Saint-Simon (the aristocratic courtier and memoirist), and a disciple of the Comte Henri de Saint-Simon (founder of the proto-Socialist movement at the height of its influence in 1831) meet via a quite fiunny vaudevillian conversation of mutual misunderstanding, which becomes the pretext for a satirical meditation on how these two coincidentally-namrd figures signify the socio-economic shifts as France was self-consciuosly entering the Modern age.
13. Charles Dupeuty, "Un Conseil de Discipline de la Garde Nationale" (A Bit of Advice on the Discipline of the National Guard)
14. La Comtesse de Bradi, "Un Bal chez le comte d'Appony" (A Ball at the Count of Appony's)
15. Castil-Blaze, "Les Musiciens" (The Musicians)
16. Auguste Hilarion de Kératry, "Les Gens de Lettres d'autrefois" (The Men of Letters of Yesteryear)

Vol. 3

1. Victor Ducange, "Un Duel" (A Duel)
2. Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, "Les Jeunes Filles de Paris" (The Young girls of Paris)
3. Louis Desnoyers, "Les Béotiens de Paris" (The Boeotians/Uncouth of Paris)
4. François Andrieux, "Le Prix Montyon" (The Montyon Prize) This prize was given by the Académie each year for work improving the effect of industrialisation on the working class, and was a fore-runner of the Nobel Prize.
5. Eugène Briffault, "La Nuit de Paris" (Night in Paris)
6. Félix Bodin, "Le Juste Milieu et la Popularité" (The Jet-Set and Pop Culture)
7. J. Bousquet, "La Cour d'Assises" ("The Criminal Court")
8. Casimir Bonjour, "Les Comédiens d'autrefois et ceux d'aujourd'hui" (The Actors of Yesteryear and Those of Today)
9. Maximilian de Villemarest, "Le Barrière du Mont-Parnasse" (The Montparnasse Gate)
10. Marceline Debord-Valmore, "Un Élève de David" (A Disciple of David) A satirically bathetic portrayal of a Classicist painter, a rare bit of humorous prose from the frenetic Romanticist female poet, a major influence on Jarry. Worth translating.
11. Paulmier, "Une Séance de Sourds-Muets" (A Session With Deaf-Mutes)
12. L. Montigny, "Paris, Ville de Garnison" (Paris, Garrison Town)
13. Éduard Mennechet, "La Cour de France en 1830" (France's Heart in 1830)
14. Jules Janin, "Les Petits Métiers" (The Minor Trades)
15. A. Bazin, "Nécrologie" (Necrology)
16. Alphonse de Lamartine, "Les Révolutions" (The Revolutions) 

Vol. 4

1. Camille Ladvocat, "Au Public" (To the Public)
2. De Peyronnet, "Vincennes" (Vincennes Prison)
3. A. de la Ville, "Les Semainiers du Théatre-Français chez le Ministre de l'Intérieur" (The Weekly Managers of the Théatre-Français in the Minister of the Interior)
4. Ernest Fuinet, "Une Maison de la Cité" (A House in the City)
5. Charles Nodier, "Les Monuments expiatoires" (The Expiatory Monuments) Nodier, who was spearheading a massive campaign to save the remnants of France's medieval past from complete destruction in the face of the 'modernizing' mania of the time, here suggests monuments of past social crimes and rejected ideas.
6. The Hermit of the Antin Street, "L'Église, le Temple et la Synagogue" (The Church, the Temple, and the Synogogue)
7. Amédée Pommier, "Les Fêtes publiques à Paris" (The Public Festivals in Paris)
8. Eugène Roch, "Le Cimetière du Père Lachaise" (Père Lachaise Cemetary) Now arguably the most famous cemetery in the world, in 1832 it was still relatively new, and its park-like design a novelty.
9. Paul David, "L'Ouvreuse de Loges" (The Green Room Attendant)
10. Jacques Arago, "Une Maison de Fous (Maison du Docteur Blanche)" (A House of Fools [House of Dr. Blanche]) Here, Arago describes the mental hospital run by the alienist Esprit Blanche, a leading proponent of experimental psychology. Blanche had strong connections with the avant-garde, and his asylum would host Jeunes-France cofounder Gérard de Nerval, musicians Fromental Halévy and Charles Gounod, and the Decadent/Realist novelest Guy de Maupassant. His grandson was the avant-garde painter Jacques-Émile Blanche. The author, Arago, came from a prominent intellectual family, and was best-known for his drawings and memoir of a scientific expedition in which he circumnavigated the globe. The year before his death, in 1853, he forshadowed Oulipean texts by nearly a century when he wrote and published a travel memoir without using the letter A once. A text quite worth translating.
11. Sophie Gay, "Les trois Lecteurs: The Three Readings". Sophie Gay, later Sophie Girardin, was one of the leading female Romanticist poets and 'fought' at the 'Battle of Hernani'. Here she describes the differences in readings of prospective plays at three different Parisian theatres.
12. Armand Marrast, "Sainte-Pélagie: détention politique" (Saint-Pélagie Prison: Political Arrest)
13. Alexandre Duval, "L'Apprenti Journaliste" (The Apprenticed Journalist)
14. Michaud & A. Bazin, "Constantinople et Paris" (Constantinople and Paris)
15. Alexandre Soumet, "L'Archevèque de Paris" (The Paris Archivist)
16. Prospectus for new journal: Répertoire Historique, edited by Eugène Roch.

Vol. 5

1. Émile Deschamps, "Une Matinée aux Invalides" (A Matinee at the Paris Veteran's Hospital")
2. Victorine Collin, "Les Jeunes personnes sans fortune à Paris" (Young People Without Fortunes in Paris")
3. Étienne-Jean Delécluze, "De la Barbarie de ce Temps, 1832" (On the Barbarism of our Times, 1832) A contentious manifesto on art theory, worth a full read.
4. James Rousseau, "Monsieur de Paris" (Sir of Paris)
5. Astolphe de Custine, "Les Amitiés Littéraires en XDCCCXXXI" (Literary Friendship in 1831) Coustine was particularly well-situated to write this essay: he was heavily involved with Romanticist subculture and his vacation home, built the year of publication, hosted many prominent members of the movement, while his mother had been a close friend of Madame de Staël and immersed in the first emergence of Romanticism in France two decades earlier. Worth translating.
6. Pierre-François Tissot, "Les Convois" (The Convoys)
7. Maurice Pallut, "Une visite à Charonton" (A Visit to Charenton Asylum) 
8. Amable Tastu, "Les migrations du Port Saint-Nicolas" (The Migrations of the Saint NicholasHarbour)
9. Henry Monnier, "Le Manie des Albums" (The Mania for Albums)
10. Félix Pyat, "Un Café de Vaudevillistes en MDCCCXXXI" (A Vaudevillians' Café in 1831) Pyat, who here portrays the culture surrounding the working-class popular entertainment industry, was a major force for most of the century both as a chronicler of Bohemian and other Parisian subcultures, and as a leading Socialist activist and politician.
11. Saint-Marc Girardin, "Paris il y a Mille Ans" (Paris a Millennium Old)
12.  Goethe, "Les Naturalistes Français" (The French Naturalists)
13. The Count Armand d'Allonville, "Les Maisons de Jeu" (The Gambling-Houses)
14. Bert, "Le Typographe" (The Typographer)
15. Louis Desnoyers, "Les Béotiens de Paris: 2e Série" (The Boeotians/Uncouth of Paris: Episode 2)
16. J.-T. Merle, "Mademoiselle Montansier, son Salon et son Théatre" (Miss Montansier, her Salon and her Theatre) Montansier, one-time directress of the Théatre-Française, had hosted an important salon before, during, and after the French Revolution.
17. A. Bazin, "Le Choléra-Morbus à Paris" (The Cholera-Morbus in Paris)
18. Arago, Jouy, Villemain, & Geoffroy Saint-Hillaire, "Les Obsèques de M. Cuvier" (The Obsequies for Mr. Cuvier) The French paleontologist Pierre-François Cuvier had died very recently.

Vol. 6

1. Charles Dupin, "Les Monuments d'Italie a Paris" (The Italian Monuments in Paris)
2. Nestor de Lamarque, "Les Catacombes" (The Catacombs)
3. Auguste Hilarion, Comte de Kératry, "Les Gens de Lettres d'aujourd'hui" (The People of Letters of Yesteryear)
4. Eugène Sue, "Le Parisien en Mer" (The Parisian at Sea)
5. Un Flaneur, "Le Flaneur à Paris" (The Flaneur in Paris)
6. Régnier Destourbet, "Les Demoiselles à marier" (Young Women to Wed)
7. Gustave Planche, La Journée d'un Journaliste (The Journey of a Journalist)
8. Élise Voiart, "L'Église des Petits-Pères a Paris"
9. Jean-Pons-Guillaume Viennet, La Vie d'un Député" 
10. Ernest Desprez, "Les Grisettes a Paris"
11. Alphonse François, "Une Audience de Justice de Paix" 
12. Narcisse-Achille de Salvandy, "La Place Louis XV"
13. Louis Desnoyers (Derville), "Les Tables d'hôte parisiennes" 
14. Guilbert de Pixérécourt, "Le Mélodrame"
15.  Jean-Pierre Lesguillon, "Les Vices a la mode"
16.  Alphonse de Lamartine, "Épître à Walter Scott" & "Homage à l'Académie de Marseille" 

 

Vol. 7

1. Prospectus for forthcoming book: Paul Robert, ou, Mémoires d'un Fils de famille, published by Jules Mayret.
2. Charles Lenormand, "Du Costume Parisien, et de son avenir" (On Parisian Dress, and its Future)
3. Léon Guérin, "Les Comités de Lecture" (The Reading Committees) The theatrical reading committees were in charge of determining whether submitted plays would be produced; they were notoriously contemptuous of writers and tended to be aesthetically conservative.
4. Étienne-Jean Delécluze, "Les Barbus d'a-présent et les Barbus de 1800"
5. N. Brazier, "Les Sociétés Chantantes" (The Singing Clubs)
6. G. d'Outrepont, "Le Gamin de Paris"
7. Benjamin Constant, "Portraits inédits" (Unpublished Portraits)
8. Ernest Fouinet, "Un Jour de paiement de rentes au Trésor" (A Day of Paying Revenues to the Treasury)
9. Edmond Mennechet, "Les Théatres de Société" (The Classy Theatres)
10. Félix Bodin, "Une Scène de Magnétisme" (A Scene of Magnetism)
11. Jal, "La Faction des Ennuyés"
12. Dupin Ainé, "De l'Improvisation" (On Improvisation)
13. Gaillardet, "La Rue des Postes"
14. A. Fontaney, "Un Magasin de modes"
15. Peyronnet, "Ham"
16. Victor Hugo, "Napoléon II"

 
Vol. 8

1. Prospectus for forthcoming book: La Chronique de France (The Chronicle of France), ed. Eduard Mennechet, and adverts for other new titles on Ladvocat. 
2. Frédéric Soulié, "L'Écrivain public" (The Popular Writer) 
3. Victor Ducange, "Une Demoiselle de Paris, en 1832" (A Young Lady of Paris, 1832)
4. Émile Deschamps, "Les Appartements a Louer" (The Rooms for Rent)
5. Léon Gozlan, "Le Napoléon Noir" (The Black Napoleon)
6. Amédée Pommier, "Les Musées en plein vent" (The Open Air Museums)
7. Jules Mayret, "Les Filles d'actrices" (The Actresses' Daughters)
8. Loève-Veimars, "L'Hôtel Carnavalet"
9. V. Schoelcher, "Les Amours de diligence" ( Loves of Exactitude / Hasty Loves)
10. A. Félix Joncières, "Le Luxembourg" (The Luxembourg Gardens)
11. Jules Janin, "Le Marchand de chiens" (The Dog-Seller)
12. Victorine Collin, "Deux Ménages Parisiens" (Two Parisian Households)
13. Charles Liadières, "L'Élève de l'École polytechnique" (The Engineering Graduate)
14. Éduard Anglemont, "L'Ouverture de la Chasse aux environs de Paris" (The Opening of the Hunt in the Vicinity of Paris)
15. Charles Duveyrier, "Le Ville Nouvelle, ou le Paris des Saints-Simoniens" (The New Town, or the Paris of the Saint-Simonians)
16. Jacques Raphael, "Le Portier de Paris" (The Paris Doorman)
17. Al. Donné, "L'Étudiant en Médicine" (The Medical Student)
18. René de Chateaubriand, "Le Naufrage" (The Shipwreck)

 
Vol. 9

1.  Cormenin,"Napoléon au Conseil d'État" (Napoleon to the State Council)
2. A. de Latour, "Le Sorbonne" (The Sorbonne University)
3. A. Luchet, "Une représentation a bénéfice" (A Benefit Performance)
4. A. Barginet, "Le Pont-Neuf et L'Isle-aux-Juifs" (The Pont-Neuf Bridge and the Isle-aux-Juifs)
5. Jules de Rességuier, "Les chevaux de poste" (The Postal Horses)
6. A. Gratiot, "Le bois de Boulogne" (The Forest of Boulogne)
7. Un Prévenu (A Defendant), "La Force" (Force)
8. N. Brazier, "Le Boulevard du Temple" 
9. Henri Martin, "Un visite à St.-Germain" (A Visit to the Saint-Germaine-de-Près Neighbourhood) 
10. Merville, "La vie de café" (Café Life)
11. James Fenimore Cooper, "Une Vision (Point de bateaux a vapeur)" (A Vision: Steamboat Stop)
12. A. Fontenay, "Une séance dans un cabinet de lecture" (A Meeting in a Reading-Room). Many people took their daily news from public reading-rooms, which stocked numerous newspapers and journals, and which were often the scene of spirited political debates, speeches, and planning.
13. Léon Halévy, "L'agence dramatique" (The Theatrical Agency)
14. Frédéric Soulié, "La Librairie à Paris" (The Paris Bookshop)
15. Le Bon Pasquier, "Éloge historiques de G. Cuvier" (Historic Elogies of G. Cuvier)
16. The Editor of the Cent-et-un [Ladvocat], "Dix heurs au chateau de Ham" (Ten Hours in the Ham Mansion)

 

Vol. 10

1.  Dupin Ainé, "Le Révolution de Juillet 1830" (The Revolution of July 1830)
2. A. Kermel, "Les Passages de Paris" (The Paris Alleyways)
3. de Pongerville, "Épître au Roi de Bavière" (Epistle of the King of Bavaria)
4. Dufau, "Les Jeunes Aveugles" (The Young Blind People)
5. d'Hervilly, "La Roulette" (Roulette)
6. Dumersan, "Le Cabinet de Médailles" (The Cabinet of Medals) 
7. O. Le Roy, "Un Élève de Ducis à Paris" (A Graduate of Ducis) A satire of Classicism, starring a student from the studio of the Classicist painter Louis Ducis. Worth a read.
8. Arnold d'a-Costa, "La Place Royale" (The Place Royale Square)
9. Sophie Pannier, "Un Jeune Républicain en 1832" (A Young Republican [hard-Leftist] in 1832)
10. Hennequin, "Le Commissaire de Police" (The Police Superintendent)
11. Rey Dussueil, "Le Siècle au Bal" (The Century at the Ball) 
12. Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, "Souvenirs du Couvent des Capucines à Paris" (Memories of the Capuchin Convent of Paris)
13. Jacques Arago, "Les Chevaliers d'Industrie" (The Knights of Indistry)
14. Comte Alexandre de Laborde, "Paris Municipe, ou Chronique de l'Hotel-de-Ville" (Municipal Paris, or Chronicle of the Hotel-de-Ville Mansion)
15. Félix Pyat, "Le Théatre Français" (The French National Theatre)
16. Andrieux, Casimir-Delavigne, & Chateaubriand, "Lettres sur Mlle Cotte" (Letters on Miss Cotte)
17. Mlle. Cotte, "La Jeune Fille Mourante: Mon dernier chant" (The Young Girl Dying: My Final Song)