12mo. In two volumes. [2], xii, 186; [2], 200pp. With an engraved portrait frontispiece to Vol. I, engraved title pages to both volumes, and a final errata leaf to Vol. II. Attractively bound in contemporary gilt-tooled red morocco, A.E.G. Extremities stained and sunned, a trifle rubbed. Marbled endpapers, margins lightly browned, else internally clean and crisp.

The first edition of an epistolary novel that purports to be a collection of correspondence by courtesan, salonniere, and patron of the arts, Anne 'Ninon' de Lenclos (1620-1705) to Madame de Sevigne. The work is commonly attributed to Louis Damours (1720-1788); though contemporary critics, most notably Voltaire, incorrectly assumed the author to be Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crebillon (Ninon notably provided funds in her will for a young Voltaire to purchase books). The novel proved remarkably popular and was frequently reprinted and translated into several European languages, including the English translation by Elizabeth Griffith, who assumed the letters to be genuine.