Physiologie du flaneur - Louis Huart
HUART, Louis. Physiologie du flâneur … Vignettes de MM. Alophe, Daumier et Maurisset. Paris, Aubert et Cie … Lavigne … 1841.
[Bound with:] ALHOY, Maurice. Physiologie de la lorette … Vignettes de Gavarny … Paris, Aubert et Cie … Lavigne … [1841]. [And:]
SAINT-HILAIRE, Émile Marco de. Physiologie du troupier … Vignettes par Jules Vernier. Paris, Aubert et Cie … Lavigne … 1841. [And:]
SOULIÉ, Frédéric. Physiologie du bas-bleu … Vignettes de Jules Vernier. Paris, Aubert et Cie … Lavigne … [1841].
Text French. 4 works bound in one vol., 16mo (129 × 76 mm), pp. 126, [2]; [3]–127, [1]; upper margin chipped in places, with slight loss to a few, not affecting the text; 125, [3]; 124, plus 4 pp. advertisements; modern calf, spine lettered gilt. An attractive pocket-sized book.
A nice collection of four physiologies: The Flâneur, The Lorette, The French Trooper, and The Blue Stocking. Veritable best-sellers of their times, physiologies are guides to the modern metropolis and its myriad of human types, combining reportage, imaginative literature, satire, humorous illustrations, and episodic stories. They inspired a ‘craze that swept Paris in the early 1840s [...]. Some 120 different physiologies were issued by various Parisian publishers between 1840 and 1842 (ranging alphabetically from the Physiologie de l’amant to the Physiologie du voyageur), and it is estimated that approximately half a million copies of these pocket-sized books were printed during the same two-year span’ (Sieburth, p. 163).
Physiologie du flâneur is a guide to the iconic Parisian figure of the nineteenth-century. An entertaining read, with its amusing narrative and and playful vignettes, some by Daumier. It includes a section on the flâneur’s favourite hangout, the Parisian arcades.
Physiologie du bas-bleu provides a history of the feminine species of learned women, their evolution from the aristocratic bluestocking, such as Madame de Sévigné, to the contemporary one, such as bas-bleu libéré, the free woman.
Physiologie de la lorette with vignettes by Gavarny [Paul Gavarni] is a guide to the world of the lorette, a class of professional prostitute associated with the Parisian neighborhood of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. A fascinating review of these filles du boulevard, with a special chapter on their lovers, les Arthures.
Physiologie du troupier reviews the French trooper, a type composed of 3 distinct species – le Jean-Jean, le Tourlourou, and le Troupier, with le Piou-Piou as an intermediary between the first two. With amusing illustrations by Jules Vernier.