O Primo Bazilio. Episodio domestico. Segunda edição, revista.

Porto, Livraria Internacional de Ernesto Chardron, and Braga: Livraria Internacional de Eugenio Chardron, 1878.. 8°, late twentieth-century red morocco, spine with raised bands in five compartments, short author-title lettered gilt in second compartment from head, date numbered in gilt at foot, each compartment double ruled in gilt, gilt fillets, covers triple ruled gilt, inner dentelles gilt, marbled endleaves, top edges gilt, other edges uncut, original printed wrappers bound in. Occasional light browning. Some mostly skillful repairs to wrappers. Overall in very good condition. Old ink signature of João Pinto de Figueiredo in upper blank margin of front wrapper. Frontispiece portrait, 608 pp. Page 475 wrongly numbered 375; p. 525 wrongly numbered 425. *** According to Guerra da Cal, this second edition of one of Eça's best and most important novels was required almost immediately after publication of the first, which had met with extraordinary success. Although the imprint states that it was printed in 1878, the same year as the first edition, the book was only launched on the market at the beginning of the following year. Eça is said to have revised the text with care, causing significant, substantial divergences from the first edition. Guerra da Cal further cites Manuel de Paiva Boléo, O realismo de Eça de Queiroz, who emphasizes the addition of a subtitle, Episódio Doméstico. As with the addition of the subtitle Scenas da vida devota in later edtions of O crime de Padre Amaro, there is an attempt to have the reader focus on an objective, critical analysis of sectors of Portuguese society. This second edition was considered by Eça to have greater validity than the first. When a French translation was proposed, he insisted that it be based on the text of the second edition. But as with a number of his other works, he did not remain satisfied. He made further revisions for the third edition, published in 1887.The frontispiece portrait plate opposite the title page is a reproduction of a photograph of Eça, seated on a sofa, his legs crossed, holding his monocle in his right hand, tipped on to a plate leaf with a red border and facsimile signature in the lower margin. This portrait is not cited by Soares & Lima, Dicionário de iconografia portuguesa; cf. 1045B for a caricature by Rafael Bordallo Pinheiro in his Album das glorias, which appeared in 1880 and which seems to have been inspired by the present portrait.Provenance: João [Castanheira de Moura] Pinto de Figueiredo (1917-1984), collector of modern art and bibliophile, wrote about Cesário Verde, Mário de Sá-Carneiro and Manuel d’Assunção. See Dicionário cronológico de autores portugueses, IV, 640-1.*** Guerra da Cal 96 (but giving, in error, the same collation as for the first edition; taking his comments into consideration, the collation he gives would be highly unlikely). For the importance of Eça de Queiroz, see Bloom, The Western Canon. Porbase locates three copies of the present edition: two in the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, and one at the Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto (the Biblioteca Nacional's copy available digitized online, with considerably more foxing and browning, has a different half-title, the recto of which is in a different setting of type, while the verso of the Biblioteca Nacional copy simply states "Porto: Typographia de A.J. da Silva Teixeira // Rua da Cancella Velha, 70"; in our copy, the text on the verso of the half-title states "Declaramos para todos os effeitos da lei, que a proprie- // dade litteraria d'este obra, no Imperio do Brazil, pertence // ao Ex.mo Snr. J.M. Machado d'Assis. // Eça de Queiroz. // Ernesto Chardron." In all other respects our copy appears to be indentical to that digitized by the Biblioteca Nacional). This edition not located in Copac, which cites a single copy of the first edition at British Library, and the third edition at University of Manchester and British Library.