Histoire de Mr. Jabot

Paris: Imp. Caillet, c. 1860. Hardcover. Near Fine. TOPFFER, Rodolphe (1799-1846). "Histoire de Mr. Jabot." Paris: Imp. Caillet, c. 1860. Oblong octavo. 110 pp. 151 drawings and legends. 7 x 10 1/2 inches. Complete: same as the Internet Archive copy. French language. Publisher's original red cloth boards, dye-stamped in gilt and black, with black greek key pattern and ruling on front and back boards, and a gilt cartouche showing a scene from the text, spine titled in gilt, leaves are guarded, blue endpapers with the bookplate of Bibliotheque d'Yves Guermont engraved by Stern, all edges gilt. "To construct a picture-story you must actually invent some kind of play, where the parts are arranged by plan and form a satisfactory whole. You do not merely pen a joke or put a refrain in couplets. You make a book." [Topffer] This is an early edition of the first Western graphic novel. Many mistakenly believe "Histoire de Mr. Vieux Bois [Adventures of Odabiah Oldbuck]," to be Topffer's first published comic book. While "Vieux Bois" was conceived first, it was not published until 1837. "Histoire de Mr. Jabot" was written in 1831 and first published in 1833, in Geneva, Switzerland. This early undated reprint from Paris is likely from 1861, but it does not carry that information on the preface, as is usual with these Parisian versions. Topffer's series of "Monsieur" books - 6 followed Jabot - are all satires of nineteenth-century society that use a single male character to stand in for a social type worthy of a skewering critique. These books were wildly popular at the time, with both the boys Topffer taught at his boarding school, and with giants of Western culture such as Goethe and Tolstoy, and were translated and pirated widely. Inspired by Moliere's "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670)," "Jabot" is the adventure of a middle-class dandy who attempts to rise into the ruling-class. We follow the adventures of this Jabot, who Groensteen writes is a "kind of stupid and vain jester who, to introduce himself into the beautiful world, clumsily apes their manners." Mr. Jabot affects his behavior by mimicking the manners of a milieu alien to him, and as Goethe wrote, "“It’s really too funny! It’s sparkling with verve and spirit! Some of these pages are incomparable." This critique of the society of appearance is undergirded by Topffer's sophisticated use of panels and comics grammar, which laid the foundation for meaning-making in today's comics. Topffer was a Swiss teacher, author, painter, cartoonist, caricaturist, and comics theorist. He was the son of the landscape-painter Wolfgang-Adam Topffer, and followed in his father's footsteps until his vision began to fail. Topffer could no longer paint realistic landscapes, but he continued drawing, making caricatures to entertain the children at the boarding school in which he taught. He is now best known for these illustrated books he conceived to entertain his pupils, which are the earliest true Western comics. He is known as the father of comic strips and has been credited as the "first comics artist in history." This copy is in remarkable, Near Fine condition. References: Blondel-Mirabaud, pp. 375-376. Cailler 24. Goethe, "Lettre a Soret," 104, p. 172, January 28, 1832. Groensteen, p. 13. Kunzle, "Father of the Comic Strip: Rodolphe Topffer," pp. 57-73; "The History of the Comic Strip - the Nineteenth Century," passim; "Rodolphe Topffer: The Complete Comic Strips." McCloud, "Understanding Comics," p. 17. Quentin/Forgeot 32. Relave, pp. 40, 42, 52. Ware, "McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Issue 13," pp. 20-34; "Strip Mind," Bookforum, April 2008.