The Revenant Archive contains fifty-three volumes of Alphonse Karr's rare, self-published avant-garde satirical magazine Les Guêpes (The Wasps), a milestone series in the history of avant-garde and DIY publishing, and an important potential resource for researchers of the counter-cultural milieu of the time.
The first issue opens with a cogent and pretty detailed analysis of the way in which,
after the Revolution of 1830, the new moderate-liberal Monarchy
exercised effective censorship through economic rather than political
means, destroying the artist- and activist-run Small Press community in
favour of a few huge corporate press conglomerates. Karr's
response to the situation was to start this self-published venture
(which lasted ten years) with an intentionally tiny audience whom he
called his "unknown friends". This move was extremely rare at the time,
when printing technology was expensive and inaccessible, over a century
before the 'Mimeograph Revolution', and Karr's rationale in this essay
for self-publishing as political and literary dissent, shows him laying
the very early groundwork upon which 'zine and micropress publishing
would eventually emerge. Karr's discourse in each issue swerves and merges unpredictably, almost as if by stream of consciousness, between political tirades, comedy sketches, gossip and in-jokes about the avant-garde community, literary and social criticism, and sarcastic observations about daily life.
Read Les Guêpes online at Gallica
Read Les Guêpes online at Gallica
The Revenant Archive holds copies of the journal's first run for 1839-42 in two separate formats, as well as its full short-lived revival from 1852-55, squelched by the government of Napoleon III, the 1883 re-issues, with redactions made under censorship of the Third Empire, and much of the re-launched, even more politically outspoken incarnation of the magazine after the fall of the Empire and the Paris Commune. It also contains a letter from Karr himself, which was found inserted between the pages of the 1853 issue (see "Personal Artifacts" for description). Most of this material was gathered by an earlier archivist, now unknown, and acquired as a collection by the Revenant Archive.
Lot 1: 1839-1842 Separate Original Printings. (27 soft-cover volumes on scrap/second-hand paper).
The original
paperback issues, the closest thing technologically possible to a 19th century 'zine--These very rare copies, many in various states of
deterioration, were unevenly printed every month on cheap paper, and recycled scrap
pages of text and illustrations from other publications have been used
to paste the heavy-stock covers over the bound signatures.
Lot 2: 1839-40 1st Deluxe Edition. (6 Bound Volumes).
These bound copies were printed from the same plates as the first
print-run, but were printed by Lange Lévy on much higher quality paper
and machine-cut; they were probably printed at the end of the year for
higher-paying subscribers. They are in near-perfect condition, and
optimal reading-research copies as compared to the initial run which are
further deteriorated or the later collections which are redacted by the
later Napoleonic censors.
Lot 3: 1853-55 Nouvelles Guêpes. (8 re-bound soft-cover volumes)
Karr briefly attempted to revive Les Guêpes under the regime of Napoleon III, an undertaking doomed to failure given the conditions of state censorship. This is a boxed set of the original soft-cover journals, each bound individually in end-paper.
Lot 4: 1871 Handwritten note by Alphonse Karr.
Karr scrawled out this increasingly agitated note to an unknown correspondent sometime in 1871, in the midst of the Franco-Prussian War. He discusses troop movements and scenes of displaced civilians pressed into military service, criticizing the new Moderate-Republican government's handling of the refugee crisis. The note was discovered tipped into an issue of the boxed 1853–55 set above.
Lot 5: 1871 Re-Launch of Les Guêpes. (9 issues, unbound in paper wrappers).
After the convulsions of the Paris Commune (whose stated goals Karr seems to have generally supported, with some reservations) and the fall of Napoleon III's regime, the sixty-year-old Karr was able to write relatively free of censorship for the first time in his life. In response, he re-launched Les Guêpes, unfettered for the first time, and probably closer in many ways to his ideal conception of the journal when he had first begun in more than 30 years earlier. While the magazine had always pushed the boundaries of political expression, even for a small-run self-published journal, the political content in this new incarnation is much more predominant and specific, reflecting both his greater sense of freedom and the fact that he now lived in Nice, far removed from the Parisian Bohemian community whose chronicles had supplied so much of the first incarnation's material.
Lot 6: 1859/87 Calmann-Lévy Re-issues. (Three Bound Volumes).
After the convulsions of the Paris Commune (whose stated goals Karr seems to have generally supported, with some reservations) and the fall of Napoleon III's regime, the sixty-year-old Karr was able to write relatively free of censorship for the first time in his life. In response, he re-launched Les Guêpes, unfettered for the first time, and probably closer in many ways to his ideal conception of the journal when he had first begun in more than 30 years earlier. While the magazine had always pushed the boundaries of political expression, even for a small-run self-published journal, the political content in this new incarnation is much more predominant and specific, reflecting both his greater sense of freedom and the fact that he now lived in Nice, far removed from the Parisian Bohemian community whose chronicles had supplied so much of the first incarnation's material.
Lot 6: 1859/87 Calmann-Lévy Re-issues. (Three Bound Volumes).
This four-volume bound reprint of the Nov. 1839--July, 1843 issues of the journal was published in 1853, again in 1859, and once more in 1887at the height of the Decadent movement by the Calmann-Lévy, who reprinted many Romanticist and other early avant-garde texts. Both of the latter editions, from whch the archive's set is assembled, use the text of the 1853 re-issue, and thus contains redactions made to conform to censorship of the Bonapartist government of the Third Empire.
As each copy in the collection is more fully processed, content information will be added to the entries below. The index will be given to the first appearance in this list of the given issue. Whenever possible page numbers have been given to the text of the first edition; both 1st edition printings are numbered identically, but the 1887 editions differs, and include politically-motivated redactions.
Lot One: Original Monthly Issues (1839-42)
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), Nov., 1839. Inaugural Issue. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
Highlights include:
- A detailed essay-manifesto about the way in which, after the Revolution of 1830, the new moderate-liberal Monarchy exercised effective censorship through economic rather than political means, destroying the artist- and activist-run Small Press community in favour of a few huge corporate press conglomerates.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), Jan, 1840. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
Highlights include:
- An in-joke about Nodier that I don't yet get, by way of criticizing Theirs for behaving like the Orleans ministers… (p. 19)
- A satire of Bonapartist conspiracies, including a short sketch in dialogue parodying the witches from Macbeth; suppressed by the Bonapartist regime from the 1853 & subsequent editions. p. 26-35 in 1st ed.
- An account of being tracked down for truancy from his state-imposed National Guard duties, which morphs into a dialogue comedy sketch about "the National-Guard Werther" p. 38-48. The last three pages of this were suppressed by the Bonapartist regime from the 1853 & subsequent editions.
- A long tirade against the Orleans monarchy, which he calls the gouvernement sauvage or 'savage government', directed against a statement by André Dupin, a prominent Royalist politician; it includes an extended comment on religious freedom, the necessity of public education, and references to Fourierism, Saint-Simonism, and the frenetic concerts of Napoleon Musard. p. 49-60
- A piece about a new brand of candies which are shaped like Romanticist writers, actresses and historians, each filled with a different liquor. Don't know if this is parodic or real… p.64
- An obscure anecdote involving the Romanticist poet Delphine Girardin and Jules Janin, p.66
- A witty remark by Alexandre Dumas, p.69
- On the French occupation of Algeria, p. 70-81
- An account of the French Academy refusing to consider Hugo as a candidate, p. 82-84.
- Complaints about tobacco laws, p. 92-95.
- On current subscriptions & an invitation to donate money (only in 1st edition), p. 95-96.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), April, 1840. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), June, 1840. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
Highlights include:
- Some back-and-forth with anonymous senders of hate-mail to the journal, p. 30-33.
- A counter-attack against a member of the French Academy who had insulted Victor Hugo
- A (rather unflattering) bit of criticism about the style of Romanticist piano-playing and composition, p. 58-59.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), July, 1840. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), Aug., 1840. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), Dec., 1840. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), Jan., 1841. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
Highlights include:
- Articles on police persecution of "indecent dances" such as the early cancan, and on dance-club etiquette, pp. 66–68. (Translation here)
- An account of a recent attempt by government censors to confiscate copies of Les Guêpes.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), Feb., 1841. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), March, 1841. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), April, 1841. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), May, 1841. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), June, 1841. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), July, 1841. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), Aug., 1841. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), Sept., 1841. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), Oct., 1841. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), Jan., 1842. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 90 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), Feb., 1842. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 92 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), March, 1842. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 92 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), April, 1842. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 92 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), May, 1842. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 92 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), June, 1842. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 94 pp.
Highlights include a series of visual texts containing brief, satirical epigraphs about various cultural and political figures & institutions, many pointing out hypocrisies and apostasies, each on its own page printed inside a circle with the caption "God protect France." Targets include the Classicist painter Ingres ("1828 Suppresses red. / 1832 rids his palette of yellow. / 1841 Doesn't know where God had his head when he put so much green into nature."), the Saint-Simonist leader Enfantin, Medicine, the novelist Balzac, King Louis-Pilippe ("The 20 February 1842 - sells the first green beans of the year."), Dandyism, Justice, and the regime-mouthpiece Le Journal des debats, which he ridicules in another essay for becoming entangled in socialist debates between the Fourierists and Saint-Simonians.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), July, 1842. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 92 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), Aug., 1842. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 92 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), Sept., 1842. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 93 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), Oct., 1842. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
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Les Guêpes (The Wasps), Nov., 1842. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr, Cover & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
Lot Two: Deluxe First Edition (1839-40)
Les Guêpes, by Alphonse Karr. Frontispieces & Decorations by Grandville. First Edition. Self-Published. Quarter-bound Hard-cover 32 mo., 200 p/vol.
Vol. 1: Nov. / Dec. 1839.
Vol. 2: Jan. / Feb. 1840.
Vol. 3: March / April 1840.
Vol. 4: May / June 1840.
Vol. 5: July / Aug. 1840.
Vol. 6: Sept. / Oct. 1840.
These higher-quality, tightly-bound end-of-the-year collections are more appropriate for reading/translation than the first-run copies in the archive, and contain some issues missing from that set.
Among the latter are articles in the May, 1840 issue describing a new set of censorship measures and the ineffective response from the leftist press (pp. 45-48); Karr's ambivalence about a movement to secure fair contracts for writers--he agrees to the principle without reservation, but decries the professionalization and commercialization of literature, which had so recently struggled to become a revolutionary force (pp. 55-60); and a bit of gossip describing the psychosocial phenomenon known known as Lizstomania (the term itself is not used here)–hysteria caused by the music and celebrity of the Romanticist Franz Lizst (p. 62).
Lot Three: Nouvelles Guêpes, Original monthly Issues soft-bound in End-Paper in Original matching Box (1853-55)
Nouvelles Guêpes, Vol. 1, 1853. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr. First Edition. Comptoir des Éditeurs, Brussels, Brussels. Paperback 32 mo., 123 pp.
Nouvelles Guêpes, Vol. 2, 1854. Belgian edition supplemented w/ Des Bourdonnements ('Buzzings'). Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr. First Edition. Comptoir des Éditeurs, Brussels, Brussels. Paperback 32 mo., 128 pp.
Nouvelles Guêpes, Vol. 3, Belgian edition supplemented w/ Des Bourdonnements ('Buzzings'). Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr. First Edition. Comptoir des Éditeurs, Brussels, Brussels. Paperback 32 mo., 123 pp.
Nouvelles Guêpes, Vol. 4, 1854. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr. First Edition. Comptoir des Éditeurs, Brussels, Brussels. Paperback 32 mo., 128 pp.
Nouvelles Guêpes, Vol. 5. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr. First Edition. Comptoir des Éditeurs, Brussels, Brussels. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
Nouvelles Guêpes, Vol. 6, 1854. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr. First Edition. Blanchard, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
Nouvelles Guêpes, Vol. 7, 1854. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr. First Edition. Blanchard, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
Nouvelles Guêpes, Vol. 8, 1855. Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr. First Edition. Blanchard, Paris. Paperback 32 mo., 96 pp.
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Lot Four: Handwritten Note by Alphonse Karr
Alphonse Karr,
Hand-written letter to unknown correspondent regarding conditions &
troop movements in the Franco-Prussian War. Undated, c. Spring, 1871.
Two pages of single folded folio sheet. Found enclosed in archive copy
of Karr's 1853 Nouvelles Guêpes boxed set (Lot 3, above).
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Lot 5: 1871 post-Paris Commune Revival
After
the convulsions of the Paris Commune (whose stated goals Karr seems to
have generally supported, with some reservations) and the fall of
Napoleon III's regime, the sixty-year-old Karr was able to write
relatively free of censorship for the first time in his life. In
response, he re-launched Les Guêpes, unfettered for the first
time, and probably closer in many ways to his ideal conception of the
journal when he had first begun in more than 30 years earlier. While the
magazine had always pushed the boundaries of political expression, even
for a small-run self-published journal, the political content in this
new incarnation is much more predominant and specific, reflecting both
his greater sense of freedom and the fact that he now lived in Nice, far
removed from the Parisian Bohemian community whose chronicles had
supplied so much of the first incarnation's material.
It
is thus particularly interesting to peruse these issues, the first of
which he must have started writing soon after his 1871 letter included
in the archive, for a glimpse of the immediate post-commune period. As
usual, Karr's satire and criticism cuts in every direction, refusing any
doctrinaire position on the event or its fallout. While censorship had
been officially abolished for the first time in France's history, it
should be remembered that this lifting of censorship came fast on the
heels of around ten-thousand summary executions of communards and around
an equal number imprisoned or deported by the new government, and an
untold number of participants in permanent exile. Out-and-out support of
the Communard cause, then, remained potentially dangerous should the
political winds change direction slightly. Nonetheless, Karr evinces
considerably more sympathy with the Communards than the large majority
of intellectuals at the time, even on the Left. He supports clemency for
Communards, a position for which Victor Hugo's home had been attacked
by a mob, even in neighbouring Belgium, affirms many of their concerns
and criticizes the Liberal capitalist Republic for its shortcomings (as
his 1871 letter would imply), and indicates that he had indeed fought at
the barricades against the Imperial government in Nice.
Although the underground status that Les Guêpes
had acquired since its initial series expanded Karr's potential
readership and distribution network (this new series was published and
sold jointly in both Nice and Paris), it remained as close to a DIY
endeavour as the technology of the day allowed. Since binding remained
prohibitively expensive, each number was issued in the form of a set of
unbound signatures lain into the paper wrap. This set includes an extra
Supplement signature in each issue, probably indicating that the
original owner was a subscriber; they cut and read every page except the several pages of adverts at the end of each supplement–every single one of which, except the first, remains uncut.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Although
the outside wrap of this issue is from the 2nd Edition, the interior
pages give no edition number and match the rest of the first-edition set
with which it was purchased; most likely, the initial wrap was damaged
early in this copy's life and a wrap from the 2nd edition supplied by
the publisher.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Les Guêpes: Revue politique, philosophique et littéraire. No. 1, Oct. 15, 1871. Ed. & written by Alphonse Karr.
Wrap: Second Edition, interior First; w/supplement. Librairie Nouvelle:
Paris / A. Gilletta: Nice. Two unbound duodecimo signatures in paper
wrap, 44 pp.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Les Guêpes: Revue politique, philosophique et littéraire. No. 2, Oct. 22, 1871. Ed. & written by Alphonse Karr. First Edition, w/supplement. Librairie Nouvelle:
Paris / A. Gilletta: Nice. Two unbound duodecimo signatures in paper
wrap, 48 pp.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Les Guêpes: Revue politique, philosophique et littéraire. No. 3, Oct. 29, 1871. Ed. & written by Alphonse Karr. First Edition, w/supplement. Librairie Nouvelle:
Paris / A. Gilletta: Nice. Two unbound duodecimo signatures in paper
wrap, 48 pp.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Les Guêpes: Revue politique, philosophique et littéraire. No. 4, Nov. 5, 1871. Ed. & written by Alphonse Karr. First Edition, w/supplement. Librairie Nouvelle:
Paris / A. Gilletta: Nice. Two unbound duodecimo signatures in paper
wrap, 48 pp.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Les Guêpes: Revue politique, philosophique et littéraire. No. 5, Nov. 12, 1871. Ed. & written by Alphonse Karr. First Edition, w/supplement. Librairie Nouvelle:
Paris / A. Gilletta: Nice. Two unbound duodecimo signatures in paper
wrap, 48 pp.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Les Guêpes: Revue politique, philosophique et littéraire. No. 7, Nov. 26, 1871. Ed. & written by Alphonse Karr. First Edition, w/supplement. Librairie Nouvelle:
Paris / A. Gilletta: Nice. Two unbound duodecimo signatures in paper
wrap, 48 pp.
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Les Guêpes: Revue politique, philosophique et littéraire. No. 8, Dec. 3, 1871. Ed. & written by Alphonse Karr. First Edition, w/supplement. Librairie Nouvelle:
Paris / A. Gilletta: Nice. Two unbound duodecimo signatures in paper
wrap, 48 pp.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Les Guêpes: Revue politique, philosophique et littéraire. No. 10, Dec. 17, 1871. Ed. & written by Alphonse Karr. First Edition, w/supplement. Librairie Nouvelle:
Paris / A. Gilletta: Nice. Two unbound duodecimo signatures in paper
wrap, 48 pp.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Les Guêpes: Revue politique, philosophique et littéraire. IInd Volume: Booklet No. 13, Jan. 7, 1872. Ed. & written by Alphonse Karr. First Edition, w/supplement. Librairie Nouvelle:
Paris / A. Gilletta: Nice. Two unbound duodecimo signatures in paper
wrap, 48 pp.
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Lot Six: 1859 / 1887 Re-Issues (1853 Redactions Maintained)
Les Guêpes: Première Série. Nouvelle édition. (The Wasps: First Series. New Edition). Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr. (1859). Decorations by Grandville. Second Edition. Calmann Lévy, Paris
Les Guêpes: Première Série. Nouvelle édition. (The Wasps: First Series. New Edition). Ed. & Written by Alphonse Karr. (1887). Decorations by Grandville. Second Edition. Calmann Lévy, Paris. Three Volumes. Stamp of previous owner: Louis A. Schwabacher, San Francisco (died in Paris, 1935).
(Link to first edition online at Gallica)
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