First edition, limited to 100 copies, the present copy unnumbered, illustrated with engraved vignette to title, fifty small vignettes or text engravings, eleven text vignette borders or head-pieces, with an additional ten vignettes in a state without text printed on separate sheets, and ten tipped-in color plate illustrations, bound in full contemporary red morocco by David, with ornately tooled red morocco doublures decorated in gilt and inlaid with blue and white leather, ribbed deep blue silk pastedowns and flyleaves, with the original paper wrappers bound in as a double-page spread before the title; ex libris Cortlandt F. Bishop (1870-1935), with his gilt-tooled red morocco book ticket, aeg.; 10 3/4 x 7 in.
Bibliophilic Uzanne's fascination with women and fashion was tinged with an ambivalence that saw him revering and reviling his subject. This work seeks to trace the history of French women. It begins ominously with the chapter, Le Vray Mirouer de Sorcellerie, and ends with an equally troubling La Parisienne Moderne, étude de physiologie spéciale et d'Attraction passionelle.
