16mo. [2], 412pp. With an engraved frontispiece and one further engraved plate by P. Kauffmann. Attractively bound in contemporary gilt-tooled red half-morocco, marbled boards, T.E.G. Very minor shelf-wear. Marbled endpapers, later bookplate of E. L. Allhusen to FEP, recent bookplate of Robert J. Hayhurst to recto of FFEP, leaves toned.

A late nineteenth century edition of Diderot’s perennially popular epistolary novel, first published in 1782. Though initially conceived as an elaborate practical joke, not intended for literary consumption, the work would become a passion project for Diderot, one that would allow him to expose the supposed rampant corruption within the religious institutions of France through the narrative of a young girl forced against her will into a Catholic convent.