e-book Prologue: Coversation Over a Chessgame (The Fifth Mistress Gabriel Book 1)

Like the chapbooks, which retailed the life of Gargantua in six new variants and an unknown number of printings in and , the story of Gargantua's son, Pantagruel, was reprinted at least seven times in the same two years. There was another reason for this success. Pantagruel was written to appeal to both broad popular audiences and intellectual elites, for it combined tall tales with elaborate erudition. Before he became a story-teller, Rabelais had established himself through letters, personal contacts, and public lectures as a learned student of Greek and Roman medicine and law.

He had in graduated from the faculty of medicine at Montpellier and had practiced at Narbonne. In , the very year in which he published Pantagruel, he also edited the Latin letters of a Ferrara physician, edited and translated several medical works by Hippocrates and Galen, and also edited a will by one Ioannes Cuspidius, supposedly an ancient Roman, with notes about the Roman law governing contracts of sale Rabelais's source has since proved to be an Italian fifteenth-century forgery.

The most serious reflection of these interests in Pantagruel is a chapter in which the hero receives a letter from his father Gargantua prescribing the course of studies that Pantagruel should follow and lauding the recent revival of ancient learning. A few chapters later, however, Pantagruel is shown judging a dispute.

Editions of Rabelais before , ed. These kinds of narrative reversals were amplified and given more sophisticated form in Gargantua [4] the Third Book , and finally the Fourth Book , which is our particular interest here. Why did Rabelais turn aside from his learned studies and editions to write these gay extravagances? The impulse represented more than the "relaxation of an erudite humanist," the production of a jeu d'esprit like the Praise of Folly by Rabelais's idol Erasmus. Son of a lawyer in the middle-sized town of Chinon on the Loire River, Rabelais entered adulthood as a Franciscan friar.

After many years in a Franciscan monastery ca. In he left the monastery forever, receiving a medical degree at Montpellier and eventually becoming a secular priest. Rabelais was not endowed with a parish benefice until , a few years before his death, and even then he was not a resident priest. His institutional attachment to the church expressed itself in both affirmations and denunciations. He hated monkery and yet felt great affection for many monastic habits and at least some monastic personalities; the prominence of Friar John, Pantagruel's companion, proves it.

He believed in Christ and was continuously preoccupied with Christian. When his two novels were printed together in the s and afterward, Gargantua was placed first and Pantagruel second, as the time sequence of their episodes required. The date of Gargantua's first publication was either early or late , judging from internal evidence. The title page of the only known copy of the earliest known edition is missing. Y, , Screech emphasizes Rabelais's Erasmianism here and in his other works on Rabelais. Even the sharpness and point of his attacks on churchmen, particularly those on ignorant Sorbonne theologians, were stimulated and made possible by the vast ecclesiastical leisure that this man of modest means enjoyed, especially in his early years in the monastery, as he acquired the prodigious learning exhibited on every second page of the novels.

The second institutional attachment permeating his writing was to the medical profession. He remained at this post something less than three years but continued intermittently thereafter to practice medicine as an attending physician to the powerful patrons whom he acquired at Lyon: With the du Bellays he traveled to the papal court at Rome, to the royal court at Paris, to Germany, and to many other parts of France and northern Italy over the next fifteen years.

Through his connection to the du Bellays Rabelais was in regular contact with royal policy during this period when France was repeatedly at war with Emperor Charles V and on tenterhooks with the popes over France's support of those Protestant princes resisting the emperor in Germany. Rabelais's understanding of policy was sharpened by his comprehension of feudal and Roman law, acquired in the household of his lawyer father and apparently during an early period of university legal studies between and Through his patrons the du Bellays Rabelais also gained some leverage on the fourth institutional system orienting his endeavors, the publishing world.

He first entered this world at a late date, in , at the age of forty-nine. One scholar has argued that Rabelais, working for the unknown firm in Lyon that first published the Great and Inestimable Chronicles of Gargantua, actually edited the latter work. That is why, Mireille Huchon argues, Rabelais praises these Chronicles so extravagantly — and then outdoes them — in his own novels.

The anonymous chapbook versions of the tales of Gargantua that appeared after borrowed not only from the Great Chronicles but also from episodes in Rabelais's Gargantua or Pantagruel. In the anonymous Disciple of Pantagruel appeared, a little book that Rabelais in turn imitated in the Fourth Book , particularly in the Carnival episode. Rabelais's acquaintance Etienne Dolet, a daring evangelical humanist eventually burned for his beliefs, was a printer at Lyon in the early s.

In he published Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel without the author's permission. Moreover, he combined them with the anonymous Disciple of Pantagruel, as if they had all been written by the same person. The disservice was not merely a question of combining Rabelais's words with non-Rabelaisian materials. Following upon a generation of Lutheran and other reformist propaganda against the papal church, Gargantua and Pantagruel had quickly acquired a reputation that was strongly anticlerical, if not heretical. Therefore Rabelais had decided to tone down a number of passages jibing at churchmen, in particular those making fan of the faculty of theology at the University of Paris the Sorbonne.

His expurgated edition appeared at Lyon in , just as Dolet issued his unexpurgated version. Rabelais and his printer were furious. On June 25, , a catalogue of censored books that included Gargantua and Pantagruel, drawn up by the Sorbonne and approved by the Parlement of Paris, was published by town criers in Paris. Nevertheless, on December 31, , only half a year after the Third Book was printed, the Sorbonne published a new list of censored books that included that volume.

Medicine, politics, clerical life, publishing: They guided his movements along the paths of their specialized inter-. But thoughts are free — or rather they are relatively free. Rabelais seems to have understood this. The course of his life, insofar as we know something of it, seems to have been calculated to frustrate or at least parry such institutional grips.

Avoiding both marriage and the hunt for preferment in church, town, or princely court, he chose an almost vagabond way. The mind was — as far as Rabelais could manage it — free yet filled with images purveyed by the body's attachments: When he took up his pen again after the condemnation of his Third Book in , he was a man of more than sixty years. The book he wrote is his most fantastic and most fascinating. The world he depicts has an intricacy and extravagance previously unplumbed. In the course of the strange odyssey, which Rabelais describes in his Fourth Book, Pantagruel and his friends sail along one morning "in high spirits" — until their guide Xenomanes points out Tapinos Island, where Quaresmeprenant rules.

Tapeinos, a Greek adjective describing something low, might refer to a low lying island or, more figuratively — and readers of Rabelais are amply conditioned to take things figuratively — to a miserable island, a base and paltry place. Humanist or not, Rabelais's readers might also have known the expression en tapinois, documented from onward, which meant to do something with dissimulation or like a sneak. Is it there that "Quaresmeprenant" reigns? French readers, humanist and nonhumanist, must have been very surprised at this, for to them Quaresmeprenant was a word referring to Carnival.

All quotations from Rabelais are from this edition, unless otherwise noted; page numbers, when relevant, will be given after book and chapter in this form: QL , 29, Other abbreviations used with reference to this edition are: Quotations from other works included in Boulenger's edition will simply give page numbers but will be identified by title in the text. English translations of Rabelais and other authors are mine throughout. Mardi Gras also will be capitalized when referring to this festival generally; when it refers only to the day before Ash Wednesday, it will be lowercased.

What is Carnival doing as king of a miserable island, reigning perhaps as a sneak or over sneaks? From Xenomanes's subsequent description, this Quaresmeprenant is anything but a merrymaker. In fact, he behaves more like Lent than Carnival. He is, says Xenomanes, "a man of worth, a good Catholic, thoroughly devout. He is a great fellow for breaking barrels. Are they full of herrings — as has usually been assumed by commentators — or of wine, or perhaps of that ambivalent food, snails? What did he do with the broken barrels, empty them into his gullet or throw them away with abhorrence [6].

Estienne is particularly explicit, citing a "parish priest. The "proverbial phrase, docteur, medecin, avocat etc. Does it come from the custom of furnishing university students with a single tonsure as a symbol of first entry into the clergy when they begin studies, but tonsuring them again when they enter higher faculties? In this case double tonsure could refer in an inversionary, satiric sense to someone of little wit.

Est une espece de futaille. A catcher, cater, or owner, of shellfish. Pierre Jourda, Volume 2 Paris, , , as "mangeur d'escargots? In nineteenth-and twentieth-century Languedoc they were used, by varying the sauce in which they were prepared, to mark Carnival and Lent successively: If the phrase refers to snails, the meaning of Quaresmeprenant's name and behavior become still more difficult to fathom. Quaresmeprenant is a linguistic paradox, whose name is at once confirmed and denied by his actions. The man is full of contradictions.

He dresses in a "joyous" manner both in cut and color, Xenomanes continues ironically: Mustard was consumed in great quantities with fish in Lent — and also with sausage in Carnival. Quaresmeprenant whips children and sits about weeping. Who is this fellow, whose appearances and activities seem so absurdly, violently irreconcilable?

Although they might seem to be simple animations of Carnival fare — pork sausage was a favorite dish during Mardi Gras — these folk turn out to be as puzzling as the master of Tapinos Island. They behave, metaphorically speaking, less like sausages than like eels: The andouilles conduct themselves like anguilles , fishy and wriggling. As if to substantiate the point, a later chapter explains that they are the venerable ancestors of the mermaid Melusine and of the sly snake who tempted Eve.

The episode that describes the Pantagruelians' encounter with Quaresmeprenant and the Sausages is the longest in Rabelais's Fourth Book , the last work published before his death in I have indicated the larger interpretive reason for attempting to understand the puzzles posed by this unusually prominent episode: Bakhtin, who sees a "carnivalesque spirit, permeating Rabelais's text, deals with these chapters only in passing, although they would seem crucial to his hypothesis.

Bakhtin is not alone in this. The most authoritative editors of Rabelais's text and most modern critics have argued away its paradoxes. Never mind the name, Quaresmeprenant is Lent, and the Sausages are just Carnival food, appropriately assaulted by Pantagruel's cooks. The Quaresmeprenant chapters are treated as an example of Rabelais's humanist, evangelical attacks on church practices, in this case fasting. The Sausage-people chapters, which involve a battle between them and Pantagruel's cooks, are seen as one of Rabelais's mock epic war stories. Such interpretations deal with what are considered the salient features of the text, not its troubling details.

They construct an even surface, not a series of polysemic knots. But Rabelais says nothing about the nature of Carnival here, nor does he describe its relation to Lent. He merely alludes to several Carnival customs. Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World , —24, makes much of the birth scene and refers also at some length to Janotus's visit, but he mentions the Quaresmeprenant-Sausage episode in only a few scattered sentences: Jourda, Volume 2, unnumbered page following , mistitled as "Combat de Mardigras et de Quaresmeprenant": Marichal, whose edition offers the most complete and authoritative text of the full Fourth Book available at present, does not mention the conflict between allegorical figures of Carnival and Lent.

Michael Screech does treat the Quaresmeprenant and Andouilles chapters as forming one episode, and he does point to the custom of Carnival-Lent battle as forming the background for the tale. But he calls Quaresmeprenant "the spirit of Lent" "the incarnation of the onset of Lent;" or "Lent" tout court in his Rabelais, , , He does not see any meditation on the nature of Carnival and Lent in this episode: Rabelais is for one and against the other, and so he concludes, Of course I am not arguing that Rabelais's chs.

Important aspects of the text demand that quite different groupings of the chapters or subdivisions of chapters be considered, in accordance with interpretive goals different from the problematics pursued here. Why do Pantagruel and his army, defenders of carnivalesque boozing and banqueting and hence the enemies of the Sausages' enemy "Lent" that is, Quaresmeprenant , attack such presumably congenial folk as the Sausage-people while never confronting Quaresmeprenant, whom Pantagruel denounces as a monstrous "Anti-Nature"?

Is there perhaps more to it than the obvious references to Sausages as Carnival food and to the Pantagruelians as gourmands? The fact is that Quaresmeprenant meant Carnival in the sixteenth century, and Rabelais was no stranger to his times. He was strange enough, however, to find playing with commonplaces fascinating and perceptive enough to see that Quaresmeprenant, which etymologically seemed to mean "taking Lent," was a curious name for Carnival.

Word games gave wings to Rabelais's fantasy. And what if the phonetic similarity between andouille and anguille were brought to bear upon the parallel obscenities clustering around their slippery, long, round forms? Once fantasy began its play, there was no stopping until meat merged with fish, man with woman, and humans with animals, or seemed to. This episode of the Fourth Book largely dissolves the traditional moral difference between Carnival and Lent. Despite the conclusions about Rabelais's ambivalent or ambiguous position drawn by the few critics who have observed the variable overtones given to the protagonists in these chapters, Rabelais does not equivocate between the two calendrical moments.

And although he hops and skips among etymologies and puns, he does not confuse the symbols traditionally associated with one occasion with those attributed to the other. He disseminates their meaning, rather than wobbling between two poles of. The manner of this dissemination offers a general insight into Rabelais's enterprise in the most bizarre of his "Pantagrueline Books. For nearly three hundred years Rabelais's reformulation of Carnival-Lent relations has been blatantly misinterpreted. Portions or all of this episode have been discussed by nearly every critic who has written about Rabelais since the seventeenth century.

What is the reason for a critical tradition that has so long and so complacently argued away the contemporary meaning of Rabelais's words? Rabelais's text has been misinterpreted because its context has been wrongly defined. The problem does not primarily arise from bringing wrong or inadequate information to bear upon the text.

It is a question of redefining the relation of text to context. That relation is usually represented theatrically or cinematically: In recent decades semiotic critics like Roland Barthes, Julia Kristeva, and Michael Riffaterre have replaced the theatrical-cinematic model with that of a productive machine. Their key term is "intertextuality": Tracing the ties of one text with others, showing the linkages and transformations of the semiotic codes used in the whole group of texts, reveals the way in which the particular "machine" in question produces meaning.

Both here and in ch. Barthes's understanding of intertextuality is different: The Author himself — that somewhat decrepit deity of the old criticism — can or could some day become a text like any other. My labeling of intertextual criticism as mechanical refers to the tendency of these critics to discern, behind the surface play of word and theme, the work of a definable set of operations that produce the text.

In these writers the organicist metaphors of the "old criticism" to which Barthes refers are replaced by mechanical mathematical ones. Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve — , Rigolot writes in Le texte de la Renaissance Geneva, , 19—20, anticipated the basic idea of these intertextual semioticians when he described "any text" in more traditional rhetorical terms "as the 'synecdoche' of another vaster, more complex text which remains to be written. The theatrical-cinematic metaphor reduces context to a scenic perspective that enhances or coerces writing, as the case may be, but in either case stands outside it.

The mechanical metaphor supposes that context consists of other literary works, decomposable like the text in question into neatly separable literary units and reassembled for the purposes at hand. In this case context does enter into the text, and even seems to conjugate it, but only insofar as the context has been reduced to verbal forms.

Rabelais's text does not yield its meanings to such interpretive assumptions. Context neither frames the text nor consists simply of verbal fragments that have been reassembled into a new text. How a text is interlaced with context is illumined and to some extent defined by paratext, a neologism that, like intertext, has value if used with other critical tools rather than as a sovereign methodology. Paratext refers to elements that frame the text, such as the title page, with its indications of title, author, and publisher, the table of contents, dedication, and preface; paratext includes elements scattered through the text such as illustrations, footnotes, and marginal indications or subtitles; it comprehends too a book's format: Paratexts indicate the forces that have shaped a text: But they are also an arena in which the author can, more or less openly, combat such forces.

Precisely this is what Rabelais did with the paratextual elements most under an author's control, his dedication and prefaces. In the prologue to the Fourth Book, for example, Rabelais attempts to exercise control over how his book will be interpreted by representing the context in which the book is. These differences stem from a theoretical disagreement: Genette sees the "literary work" as "consist[ing] exhaustively or essentially in a text" which is created by an author. Hence paratext for Genette is above all "defined by an intention and a responsibility [on the part] of the author" Seuils, 7, 9.

I assume, on the contrary, that neither text nor paratext are defined simply by an author's intentions and responsibilities but instead are the consequence of a series of compromises between the author and other persons involved in making a book, most obviously the book's editor and those representing the financial and other interests of a book's publishing house. This is true of "literary works" as of other printed publications. I have developed further this idea of collective creation and compromise in paratext in chapter 8.

The first words of the text treat readers as if they were being greeted physically by the author: I can't see you. Wait until I put on my glasses. Lent is going by, well and fair! The "Prologue of the Author M. But the salutation, "God save and keep you" is an oral greeting. The shift from written to oral representation of the books context is confirmed by the further words "Where are you? His seeing is not like that of some omniscient deity.

He does not say "I, Rabelais, see you, all of my present and future readers until Kingdom come! The game, "Lent is going by, well and fair," is listed among those that Gargantua played as a boy in Rabelais's earlier book, Gargantua, describing Pantagruel's father.

Presumably it was widely known, although historians have thus far not found other contemporary allusions to it. In the nineteenth century the game was played during Lent in Poitou, a region just to the south of the Loire Valley where Rabelais — and his fictitious giants — grew up. Morning, noon, or night, each one tried to surprise the other by shouting: Je ne vous peuz voir. Attendez que je chausse mes lunettes! Bien et beau s'en va Quaresme! Many place-names in Rabelais's fictions locate the scene in the countryside of the author's childhood around Chinon. Antoine Oudin, an antiquarian writing in about "French curiosities explained "Lent is going by" in terms parallel to Pineau, so the idea of the game seems well established.

In the list of Gargantua's childhood pastimes the game listed just after "Lent is going by" is "I catch you without any green" or "take you": Je vous prens sans verd , a May Day game in which one concealed a green leaf on one's person and produced it when accosted with this phrase. Rabelais lists games, and in the long listing one is often associated with the next. If this is why Rabelais thought of one after the other, then perhaps the phrase "Lent is going by, well and fair" has a seasonal meaning, as the green-leaf game on May Day certainly does: However, the phrase may refer ironically to the period of obligatory fasting, an obligation that was not a "good and fair" thing bien et beau in the opinion of many; but for such people, if Lent is passing along, that is well enough.

Rabelais's readers are not addressed from the distance of a writer's study. They are brought into the text as interlocutors, even as players in a game. The text is transformed into a public place, a place of encounter, as if the text's words were determined in some measure by the behavior of the audience. Rabelais creates a narrative frame as open-ended, as indefinite and inconclusive as the conversations of the Pantagruelians in the story, which are often broken into by some accident that interferes with their pursuits.

Nancy Regalado analyzed Villon's techniques breaking off phrases, inserting interjections and digressions, using frequent deixis in her paper, "Speaking in Script: Your vintage has turned out well, as I've been told, and I would never be sorry about that. You have found an infinite remedy against any kind of change, any kind of thirst. That's most virtuously done. You, your wives, your children, your relatives and households, are as healthy as may be? That's good, that's fine, that pleases me.

This feigned warmth and closeness in the address to readers had first appeared in the prologue to the Third Book , published six years earlier The change is connected with a shift in persona: Few readers would have been able to unscramble the vaguely Arabian pseudonym and discover the notable doctor and editor of Hippocrates.

Text is pulled away from paratext, as Rabelais makes more explicit his representation of himself as an author. There were several reasons. Bakhtin, Rabelais , —71, offers the fullest interpretation of their praise and abuse. Alcofribas" "the late Master Alcofribas": For this and other reasons explained in ch. Only the latter interest us at this point. Rabelais's first, second, and third novels had been condemned in , , and by the Sorbonne; the second and third condemnations had been endorsed by the Parlement of Paris; there was a risk that copies of the novels in bookstores would be confiscated and the booksellers fined if not imprisoned.

In the prologue author feigns first not to see the "worthy people" whom he invites to conversation "where are you? I can't see you" , but he then dissolves the pretense with his playful "Ha, ha! In its sixteenth-century context to say "I can't see you" meant to protest someone's absence, in this case presumably the absence of the kind of "worthy people" who could protect Rabelais's writings from attack.

Rabelais lashes out with great verbal violence against those denouncing his writings in the prologue of Four years later his situation had changed. Having gained new support at the French court, Rabelais received a royal privilege to print all his works with the king's protection for ten years to come. The altered situation for his books is reflected in Rabelais's easy tone in the prologue of He asks about the health of his suppositious readers' friends and relatives and responds with an orotund Christian prayer: May God, the good God, be eternally.

Higman, Censorship and the Sorbonne: A Bibliographical Study of Books in French Censured by the Faculty of Theology of the University of Paris — Geneva, , explains the sixteenth-century mechanisms of censorship and condemnation. For Rabelais's condemnations, not especially singled out for study by Higman, see 52, 62, In QL , Pr , , n. Rabelais had already used it that way in G , 3, May the great virtue of God come eternally in aid to you, and no less to me! There then, by God, let us never do anything without first praising his sacred name!

On whom could Rabelais rely besides God? The royal privilege of was not the first he had received. The Third Book had been published in with a royal privilege that had not saved it from the Sorbonne's condemnation. Church authority was at least semi-independent from state authority; even the authority of Parlement was not always under the control of the king and his ministers.

During the first half of the sixteenth century royal favor had waxed and waned toward those of humanist and evangelist persuasion like Rabelais. He could not feel entirely secure in royal patronage. Others — most signally the learned though impetuous Louis de Berquin and Etienne Dolet — had been burned for their humanist opinions and publications. Rabelais's firmest source of support was not the king and his ministers but his anonymous readers. By it is probable that at least fifty thousand copies of Rabelais's first four books had been printed.

The vogue of his books would continue after his death in until the end of the sixteenth century. Such massive although remote support was novel; it was due to the invention of printing a century earlier and to the inventiveness of publishers in exploiting new markets of readers. The problem for Rabelais was how to use this new but anonymous power. Through printing the boundaries of literary influence and re-.

One thousand copies seems to have been the more or less normal printing for an author in Rabelais's time. But Aldus Manutius earlier in the century often printed three thousand copies of popular classical authors, and Reformation writings after also were published in printings much larger than one thousand. Rabelais was a popular author; at least some of the forty-six editions were probably published in runs of more than one thousand copies; there is always the possibility, too, that some as yet unknown editions existed, especially pirated editions of Pantagruel and Gargantua.

Some persons also presumably bought single tomes of the multivolume editions among those listed in the NRB. The figure of fifty thousand is one-half the number of "Rabelaisian writings" estimated for the whole sixteenth century by Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin, L'apparition du livre Paris, , There were as yet few conventions to follow. Authors derived little income from their publications. The only semblances of copyright were the privileges extended to favored authors or publishers by princes and city councils.

Due to the still largely decentralized character of feudal-monarchical society, such privileges were ineffective in preventing pirated editions and even incapable of preventing condemnation by rival authorities. Yet Rabelais could be certain not only that he possessed power but also that this was recognized by those upon whom he otherwise depended. Luther's massively published writings proved that low and obscure men, capable of evoking popular response through the printed book, might move and even overturn church and state.

The example of Erasmus's popularity was equally pertinent. The Dutch humanist, who unlike Luther was one of Rabelais's heroes, had both taught and demonstrated that writing seriocomically in a popularizing vein might through the new tool of the printed book be a leavening force. Printing was Rabelais's inspiration. Erasmus's clarion call in the Paraclesis , the paratextual introduction to his new Latin translation of the Greek New Testament , where he states that his ambition is to make the biblical gospels and epistles so available and understandable through translations and commentary that farmers, women, weavers, and travelers might read it as they move about their daily tasks.

Hajo Holborn and Annemarie Holborn Munich, , Erasmus's Praise of Folly, Colloquies, and some other of his works are superb examples of popularizing elite culture, and, at least in the opinion of opposing authorities, they were ideologically effective. For more copies of it have been sold by the printers in two months than of the Bible in nine years!

A few letters by Rabelais in Greek and Latin, published and unpublished at the time, remain from the years up to when this prologue was written. They, like the learned translations and commentaries he also published in , exhibit correct but unexceptional diction. There is little sign of the audacious verve and ironic subtlety of expression that erupt in Pantagruel.

Printing, because it was a mode of communication that widened the possible audience immeasurably, seems not only to have served Rabelais as a humanist but also to have suggested to him another, fictive avenue of verbal exchange with readers, calling upon a different level of mind and feeling from that with which he dealt in his scholarly productions. Not so much a new group of uncultivated "popular" readers but the broadly mixed audiences made possible by printing proved the making of Rabelais as a writer; his audiences were literate and illiterate, serious and mocking, leveling and hierarchizing in feeling, idealist and practical, naturalistic and yet also religious in belief.

Printing allowed communication with this varied and variable set of sensibilities. Rabelais pressed his readers to develop in themselves such variability by his paratextual tactics. With the advent of printing a vast gray space emerged between composition and reception, between sending the text's messages and feedback to author and publisher about them; the prologue narrator's exclamation, "Where are you?

I can't see you," carries this nuance, too. How different this was from the situation of pulpit preacher and jongleur, whose orally delivered texts necessarily involved audience encounter. Far from his readers, Rabelais represented his readers as paradoxically near, clustering around a bookstall in the prologue to Pantagruel as Alcofribas extols the exquisite virtues of the Chronicles about Gargantua and its sequel Pantagruel ; sitting in some room with Dr.

Rabelais himself in the prologue to the Fourth Book as that affable gentleman inquires about friends and family. Rabelais feigns to turn to his books, citing the New Testament and three medical treatises attributed to Galen. Hence one imagines him in some place, perhaps his study, with his books at hand: II, De usu partium, lib. De renum affectibus s'il est de Galen " QL , Pr, For any representation implies a reality beyond it that differs from the representation.

To represent author and reader in the obviously impossible forms of Rabelais's prologues requires the reader to reflect upon the identity of the author behind the simulacrum, to reflect upon his or her own identity in relation to these texts, and hence to separate in greater or lesser degree the reality from the representation. If Rabelais writes of Dr. Rabelais in his parlor or study, receiving worthy well-wishers of his books, one can be certain that he is asking his readers to imagine an author-reader connection that is something other than the one depicted in such a scene.

The manuscript book contained wide margins, filled with glosses. The physical space between the scribe or scholar who wrote and the theological, pedagogical, or otherwise interested reader who commented was broad because the intellectual space between them was assumed to be narrow. It was small because the physical distance between author and reader was large.

Because it was large it stimulated authors to develop their manipulative powers, to inveigle readers, and to steer them in directions consistent with their textual purposes. The authors of the printed book had to imagine themselves and their readers in ways quite unparalleled in either oral or manuscript communication.

They might move either to induce looseness and inventive digression or to insure compliance. Rabelais's fictitious list of the books in the monastery library of Saint Victor at Paris P, 7, —24 is from the point of view considered here less an image of monastic obscurantism and hypocrisy than a representation of the narrow, obsessively glossing mentality encouraged by the form of manuscript bookmaking. This is my suggestion; Bakhtin does not especially concern himself with effects of printing. How did the real reader appear to the eyes of the real author?

We cannot be certain of course, but we have several clues. One clue consists of woodcuts, showing scenes of reading, on the title pages of two pirated editions of Rabelais's Gargantua. Neither woodcut was influenced by Rabelais; they are presumably pieces of advertising chosen by the publishers. The publishers, located in southern France, were familiar with the milieus in which Rabelais's books were selling so well: But because they would have been commonly known, they may be assumed to have been familiar to Rabelais as well and to have entered into his idea of his readers.

The first woodcut, published by Etienne Dolet in the abusively unexpurgated edition of , shows a stout, long-robed gentleman reading from a large book opened on a table before him. His left arm grazes the shoulder of another child of the same age both children seem to be male while pointing to a line in the book. Two large vessels, seemingly for liquid one at least seems filled , are placed to right and left of the book on the table.

Six men of varying ages crowd in upon the scene of reading, as if to hear what the gentleman is saying. Two or three are represented with open mouths, as if exclaiming in astonishment. The second woodcut see Fig. Berkeley, , Cesare Segre, Avviamento all'analisi del testo letterario Turin, , and the authors in S. Essays on Audience and Interpretation Princeton, They are discussed further in chs.

NRB , 48, reproduces the woodcut. A cup or glass stands to the right of the book; is this a tavern scene? The five people listening to the reader crowd around him more closely than the people in Dolet's woodcut. They grimace or gaze with open mouths, bedazed or aghast at the words of the reader bending over his text. This representation shows more lower class and more eccentric people — note their bizarre hats — than that in Dolet's edition; these people express their reactions with toothy directness. Rabelais mixed appeals to his readers, sometimes addressing "worthy people" like those in Dolet's woodcut and sometimes referring to "poor victims of pox and gout.

An anonymous prologue to a book about commercial ethics published in at the French city of Provins complained about "the useless novels and tales which people customarily read so assiduously at the workshops and stores of merchants, where many come to hear and listen to them for [purposes of] vain pleasure. Printing might be said to have paradoxically stimulated illiteracy no less than literacy because it increased the repertoire and means of entertainment at the disposal of oral performers, descendants of the courtly minstrels who still in sixteenth-century Europe told tales — and now might read them aloud — improvised songs, and broadcast the news in public places.

The mixture of oral with written elements, therefore, rather than the exclusion of one or the other, is characteristic of such performers, who continued to exist in some parts of Europe well into the twentieth century. Any written communication presupposes oral communications concerning the same subjects or using the same words in other connections. The sources of language do not lie on one side as opposed to the other but in the two sides' interplay, in utterance combined with inscription. Rabelais exploited the interplay by representing what was written not only as if it were taking place orally but also in a more general sense.

Printing brought letters to the unlettered in new ways. Towns in particular were plastered with print, now that public proclamations of every kind could be cheaply reproduced. Those who could not read were in the presence of written documents at church, on the job, and in the streets in unprecedented ways, and this atmosphere of literacy formed their consciousness no less than that of the lettered.

On this subject, see Natalie Z. The more general perspective alluded to in these sentences, developed particularly in the work of Martin Heidegger e. The list of the books of the monastic library of Saint Victor in Pantagruel is one example; enumeration of the parts of Quaresmeprenant's anatomy in the Carnival-Lent episode of the Fourth Book is another. I suggested that paratext is a linking place between elements proper to a book's composition and elements related to a book's reception.

Investigation of this place of linkage will be helpful in explaining the misinterpretation of Rabelais's idea of Carnival and hence ultimately of critics' idea of the text as carnivalesque. Rabelais's paratextual elements constitute a series of feints and mixtures of tactics, favored by the relatively new character of printed book production. How did such feints and mixtures serve Rabelais's ends, which at the very least included that of being able to continue to publish? How did such tactics counter the attacks on him, attacks of which he took almost frenzied notice in the Carnival-Lent episode, denouncing the "maniac [Guillaume] Postels, the demoniacal [John] Calvins, the crazy [Catholic theologian Gabriel Du-] Puy-Herbaults.

Rabelais was a dependent person economically and politically. Unlike the career-seeking, back-biting intellectuals in his time, he does not seem to have sought to rise above that condition. One might guess — but it is only a guess, an argument from silence more than from facts — that he even sought mediocre obscurity in arranging his life and career. Because he did not write from a position of power, he had to write from a place of concealment, almost like a guerrilla fighter whose allies are anonymous and changing, depending on circumstances.

He drew upon the power of his numerous but remote readers by crossing boundaries made uncertain by the advent of printing. Rabelais — who necessarily bear only an oblique relation to the real author writing about them. He crossed the frontiers between a number of genres of elite and popular literature by varying his rhetoric, mixing jokes with theology or medicine and Carnival topics with high seriousness. He also scrambled the boundaries between oral and written modes of writing. Let us briefly return to consideration of this third way of developing an anonymous popularity.

The new distance between author and reader imposed by printing stimulated recognition of the fact that writing like speaking never relies simply on words to communicate. Face-to face communication supplements the voice with gestures and clothes and bodily stance. In written communication various marks must be substituted for these supplements. Even in the medieval period of the manuscript book, separations between paragraphs and chapters, capitalization, punctuation marks, and other instruments irrelevant to orally oriented literature had been worked out.

But for Rabelais's purposes all this seems inadequate. He seems to want to lean out of the page to accost readers with onomatopoeic, rhythmic, emotive utterances "Ha, ha! Rabelais , utterances that lead over the book's margins toward games and dances. The place of a tactic belongs to the other. Many everyday practices talking, reading, moving about, shopping. And so are, more generally, many 'ways of operating': Then again he seems to withdraw into a medically professional anonymity, as in the descriptions of Quaresmeprenant in the Fourth Book. Rabelais's tactics acknowledge the otherness of nonverbal communication and seek to turn it to the printed text's profit by imitating those modes of everyday behavior with which he was especially familiar.

The context is given opportunity to enrich the text throughout, not simply in its paratextual elements. Context permeates the text. The cumulative effect of these boundary crossings and mixtures is not simply to demand a great deal of knowledge and a nimble wit in order to seize an author's nuanced references; it is also to foster a kind of cunning. If readers are not prepared to shift and swerve with the feints of the author, they cannot apprehend the text.

Printing brought immense new pressures to bear upon authors from state and church; these authorities were not interested in nimble wits, let alone cunning; they were concerned with security. The apparatus of the title page, indicating place, date, and printer's or publisher's name, was of course an economic advantage, telling buyers where to find the book; but it was also a means of political control, allowing the state to find and condemn suspicious books and booksellers.

Printing increased the author's freedom by distancing him from official as well as unofficial readers. But printing also increased the pressures on the author to conform, on one hand to public opinion in order to sell and on the other to official opinion in order to avoid arrest of the books or oneself. To thwart these pressures Rabelais sought to stimulate cunning; he also tried something else. His gaiety of spirit, which comes from many sources and serves many ends, was at least in part a political attitude, if not at the beginning of his fictional writing in , then certainly by or when he elaborated the Fourth Book after repeated condemnations by the Parlement of Paris and the Sorbonne.

By means of laughter Rabelais sought to contact his readers in ways that would pry them loose from the demands of special interests and self-serving dogmatisms:. The word has unavoidably different meanings, distinguished in Appendix 1. It is a bloody tale. See the section, "Le livre et les propagandes religieuses," in Chartier and Martin, Histoire de l'imprimerie , Volume 1. Rabelais's playfulness with readers, his digressive fables and tales, his obscenities, his scatology are frequently political in Bakhtin's sense of dethroning official pretentiousness; they are always political in the more general sense of thwarting orderliness with laughter.

One of Rabelais's most effective feints was to represent his alter egos, Alcofribas and Dr. Rabelais, as if they were continuously in this state of mind, assisted by copious wine. The Rabelaisian text is suffused with an atmosphere of leisure and pleasure: In the vagaries of talk, through the unforeseeable deviations of common language employed in common conversation, the spirit relaxes; it becomes pliable and receptive to excess, deviation, violation of norms.

Were these maneuvers politically successful? The Fourth Book , when it appeared, was immediately condemned. The royal privilege included in its paratext did not inhibit the Parlement of Paris from condemning the book on the advice of the Sorbonne on March 1, That is all we know.

About the time of. This "dizain" by the author occupies the reverse of the title page of Gargantua. Thus once Rabelais began publishing Gargantua and Pantagruel in order, with Gargantua first, these were the first words of the author's text. Rabelais's death in early the Fourth Book was published in several more editions in and ; the Fifth Book , probably based on drafts found among Rabelais's papers, was published in Thus just as in the case of other heretics Rabelais's works were condemned one and all by the Roman Catholic Index in , the conflicting jurisdictions of ecclesiastical, monarchical, and administrative bureaucratic powers seem to have allowed publishers by and large to print with impunity whatever they could sell.

It is too easy simply to look backward and take the represented author's side: Rabelais was the good guy and so the wise King Henry and his astute councillors supported him; the "demoniacal" Calvin, the "crazy" Catholic theologian DuPuyherbault and their ilk were wrong, evil-minded men. Such conclusions elide the context and make Rabelais's text ultimately less understandable.

We have already suggested this by referring to the difference in tone between the two prologues that Rabelais published to his Fourth Book. The one published in , with its Lenten game and calm prayer, was jovially sedate; the other, published in after the third condemnation of his books, was imploring in its prayerfulness and accusatory with respect to Rabelais's slanderers: But his conclusion in the latter study takes Dr. Rabelais too complacently at his own word and argues too positively from silence about the attitudes and power of his friends at court: The words quoted by Marichal are from Rabelais's dedicatory letter to the Fourth Book , discussed at length in my ch.

Marichal's earlier conclusions about the censure of the Quart Livre were more tentative and more substantive. See his "Quart Livre: Commentaires," Etudes rabelaisiennes 5 The public scene between and provided justification for this near frenzy, whether feigned or genuinely felt. The long-awaited Council of Trent began in a manner that augured little hope for Catholic liberals like Rabelais and Jean du Bellay.

On March 31, , King Francis died, replaced by his young son Henry, whose political inclinations were not clear. He was closest to the conservative and peremptory Constable Montmorency. There is a facsimile of Hemingways signature stamped on the front cover. It is black with gold writing on the spine. Pretty good shape for its age. Could someone tell me if there is any value to this book. Thank you for your comment. It is not something we would handle at auction. While in a local antique shop I found a charles Dickens book,The old curiosity shop.

It was published by Heritage Press of New York copyright was , there is no dust cover but on the front there is charles Dickens initials. I have 2 books from They have many pictures and document the meeting of all the worlds religions. I have tryed looking them up and cannot even find them. Do you know the value? These books are not of high value. You may be able to find out more about your books on a used book website: We recently experienced a fire in our office where I had several vintage books. Can you tell me the value of these books?

The Book says the 2nd Edition. The 1st was by John Taylor. Published in Boston in , Printed and sold by S. Kneeland, opposite to the probate-office in Queen-street.

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The Book has Samuel Dunbar signature. He was instrumental in arranging the meeting between Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren to write the Suffolk Resolves, believed to be the precursor to the Declaration of Independence. What would become known as the Suffolk Resolves was first discussed at this meeting. Samuel Dunbar a Harvard educated parish minister. His Eulogy was read by Paul Revere. So the two questions are. A Binion and S. Malevsky Published by Thomas Y. The book is Blue Cloth hardback with green, purple and gold on the front. Is has two sets of copyright dates on the inside, , by Henry Altemus, and , by Thomas Y.

If you could provide me with any information I would forever be in your debt. Thank you for extending the courtesy of your wisdom. Deborah, the first was published in London in All copyright dates are the same. You may email a photo of the title page to me and I can tell you whether it is truly from or not. I have a lovely book I cannot find reference to anywhere.

What makes it unusual is the cover. It is tightly bound in brown suede and has two multicolored leaves that look and feel handpainted onto the sued. It belonged to my great grandfather, who was born in s. Walsh, Ellwood Harvey and John Elderken. Copy write is and has over engravings within the book. The cover is emerald green cloth with gold and black embellished pictures on the front and binding. As far as I can tell all the pages are there but the binding is loose and worn on the top and bottom.

This is a hard copy and has no dust cover. Any help you could give me will be most appreciated. The information on your site was very helpful. Diane, Thank you for your comment. I must not be looking in the right place. It is leather bound and well used. Can you help me by pointing me towards a website or person who can give me an idea as to the value of this book? Jamie, To find out what your Book of Common Prayer may be worth at auction, please submit photos and an auction evaluation form on our website: I found a book that has been in our fanily for several generations and would like to know what the value may be.

Many are first editions and a vareity of subjects. There are also leather bound and other very interesting features. I am not a book expert, but was wondering where I could go to get a good appraisal of my books. Thank you for your help. The best course of action is to pick out a few that you think might be first editions and do a little homework, or, if this is not feasible, send along the basic book information author, title, imprint city, printer, date either as a typed document or as photographs of title pages.

You can find my contact info here: I have a copy of The Seawolf, signed by Jack London. In extremely good condition. No published date, only last copyright date of The first edition of the Sea Wolf came out in , and is collectible. This later edition would not be appropriate for a rare book auction. I thank you for your insight to on what to look for in old books. I was wondering if you could direct me further on value.

Oddly, there is inscriptions by Lolo D. Gillispie dated and another by Donna J. Barrell was her daughter. The book is red cloth like. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks for your comment. I have a book in excelant condition titled Leaders of the 19th century. Would it have any value? I have a first edition of The phantom of the opera published by bobbs and Merrill , Trying to get a value of the book. I have a hard cover first edition book, The book is in good condition, can you please give by the value of what this book might be.

I would be interested to hear what, if anything, you have learned about it since you posted almost a year ago. Please submit photos and an auction evaluation form via our website: A or N Aforniohan W. No jacket but good shape. I have a leather bound set of The Marvelous Miniature Library. It contains 6 books: All are stamped Made in France. Published by Miniature Dictionary Publishers, Inc.

Do you know when these may be been published? Would you have an approximate value of this collection? It would be below our minimum for auction. They are in excellent condition some slight yellowing on the hard cover but no tears inside or out. No writting and no dogears. Can you give me an idea of their value. They have the paper covers but there is nothing written on the covers just a cut out so the volume number conveniently shows through the hole.

They are in excellent condition. No torn pages, writting nor dogears. Thanks for your comments. They are not something we would handle at auction. They are in good condition no paper covers and have been in a box in a closet for the last 50 years. Are they of interest in the antique book market? To find out what your Charles Dickens set may be worth at auction, please submit photos and an auction evaluation form on our website: Thank you for your response. I have a good condition Les Miserables two volume set. They have gold covered top edges and have many page bottoms joined.

No markings except for a large gift inscription on inside cover and facing page blank. Slightly marred title on the spine of Vol II. The absence of a book jacket that never existed does not affect the value of the book, so for books printed before book jackets were invented… this is a question that cannot be answered briefly. I have a edition of Hiawatha that appears to be covered with alligator skin. It is in very good condition.

What would the value be? Pamela, Thanks for commenting. Thanks for the great info. I believe this is the first American printing. The book is is in good condition with some wear at the top and bottom of the spine. Is this book of value on the antique book market? Dennis, Thank you for your comment. We are clearing out my mothers house. We found an Websters Dictionary in good condition. Is this something we should sell at an estate sale or privately if it is valuable? We cannot find a way to approximate the value. I found a book at a used book store that I have been wondering about.

The binding is battered and the pages are yellowed with age, but otherwise it is in good shape with a lovely marbled cover. Do you think that is a fair price? Please submit photos and an auction evaluation form on our website to find out what your autograph book may be worth at auction: I have also come into a large collection of mostly older books. Thank you again for the information posted. Most of the books I suspect date between s to s.

Are there any other tools out there that you could suggest that may help me separate the low-end books from the potential high end? Best of luck with the collection. I purchased a box of books at an auction and would like to know the value of one in particular. Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall. Hi, My mom was given this book to her by a friend many years ago and she has had it tucked away. She gave it to me as she is getting up in age and I was wondering if it is worth anything.

Clemens above when my copy was printed and I would guess that would have been the 1st edtion. I have a book titled on outside Don Juan, it is intricately tooled leather, with two colors, black and brown. Cunningham , ESQ, , illustrations on steel, Philadelphia: It was given to my great uncle by a friend in as is inscribed. Any information you could give me is appreciated, thank you for your time.

I have a book by T. It has a preface by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It has a green cover with gold decoration. It has illustrations inside with tissue protective covering over each one. Gibbins titled Industry in England in very good condition. Curious if anyone knows if any value as the book is really in incredible condition for its age aside from some penciled in notes from an obvious past student.

Steve, Thanks for your comment. This book is not something we would handle at auction. Hardcover binding is worn on the edges and edges are starting to come apart. Any value , any interest? Merle, Thank you for your comment. I recently obtained 4 books and would like to obtain their values: What are Old Books Worth? I have a 1st edition, 1st printing of grapes of wrath and a 1st edition, 1st printing of Sweet Thursday that is signed and inscribed. Please submit photos and an auction evaluation form on our website in order to find out what your books may be worth at auction: Thank you very much for the informative article and thanking you in advance for any advice you may offer.

I was putting books away and found: Uncle Remus His Songs and Sayings. Has gilt gold brer rabbit on brown cover. Ripped blank page but still present. Also…I found The Deerslayer. I only find a reference to this publishing in a Pittsburg Gazette ad in The condition of the paper seems quite old. Thank you, Adrian Stocks. To find out what these two books may be worth at auction, please submit photos and an auction evaluation form on our website: It is an A4 size book.

I am wondering what this may be valued at? I have several books that I would appreciate your professional opinion on: Lippincott Company, First Edition 2. I have the two volume set of Dr. I want to donate them to a local auction and was wondering what the value range might be. I have two books I am interesting in getting a value for. A few websites have ranged from dollars, and have left me a little in the dark of what to expect.

It is in surprisingly good condition, with no tears or cracks, and only slight to moderate wear on the covers and binding. This edition is black, with the illustrated whale head breaching out of water on the cover, and the whale tail along the binding. Neither book has a jacket, but I believe neither originally came with one. Neither has any writing in the book, or any tears or cracks. Thank you for your time! I recently came upon a first edition American imprint of Wharton, J.

The Law Lexicon, or Dictionary of Jurisprudence. Not the Rothman reprint. Fisher Sydney George Fisher? The front cover is loose. Inside pages are tight with light foxing. To find out what your book may be worth at auction, please submit photos and an auction evaluation form on our website: It is leather bound, with five raised edges on the spine, gold gilt edges, and quite a bit of embossing on the covers.

Also, there are numerous engravings in the book, some with tissue between the pages. Any insight as to value that you could provide would be greatly appreciated. In tolerable condition, but needs some work. It was evidently supposed to be noteworthy due to its being Illustrated with engravings by by John Leach.

Any insight to its value would be appreciated. I have a Pres. Kennedy colorful White House book with personal message to my mother written on the cover and signed by J. My uncle Jerry Bruno was J. I also have the book Jerry Bruno wrote about Kennedy.

I would like to know the value. Thank you, Rosemary Kishline. What is the current value of this book. Please submit photos and an auction evaluation form on our website to find out what your Darwin book may be worth at auction: I have a copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Book is ion good condition. From a school library. Bonzoi stamp on back. Thank you for a very informative site! To find out what your copy of Alice in Wonderland may be worth at auction, please submit photos and an auction evaluation form on our website: I have a copy of The Patent Hat. This copy is or seems to be particularly old. How can I find information and value of this book. I hope you can help me. Brian, To find out what your book may be worth at auction, please submit photos and an auction evaluation form on our website: I have a set of 11 books, Charles Dickens,appear to have been first issued in , but the preface is dated Are in good condition, but have a library stamp on the inside blank leaf.

Also a soft green leather edition with gold edging on pages of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte,second edition December 21st, with a note to the 3rd edition dated April 13th Has a handwritten name, dated Also a library stamp. Is there any value to any of these books? Also an German book: Published in Philadelphia by Mentz and Roboudt. Not sure if I have spelled everything right, the typeface is difficult to read. The cover had a lock which has deteriorated. Somehow my comment was deleted during a wait on reply. I hope you can tell me about an old book my Dad just acquired. Dear Christine, This book is not of high value and is not something we would offer at auction.

You may be able to find out more about your book on a used book website: I have looked on a few websites for pricing on two old books but without any luck. Paper page edges are gold color gilded. Any assistenace would be appreciated. Bone, who will find full particulars of himself in the dedication of this book!

Thanks for the comment. I have beee trying to find information online about the pubplication date or possible worth of a book but I am unable to find any on the particular edition that I have. It is a Blue cloth covered with numbered pages. Do you have any information about this book? This book is signed. Also has several samples of binding that can be obtained. Other illustrations have a small page insert describing the illustration..

I have never been able to find any info on this second book. Any help will be most appreciated. Your comment is awaiting moderation. December 11, at 4: It was published in My copy is intact, no tears, and the only flaw is that the corner edges of the cover is slightly worn. I have no true idea of its worth nor do I know where it is best to sell it. I would appreciate your expert opinion.

Hi my question is, I have the book, The Side of Paradise Fitzgerald, is without the dust cover but is on.. I have three books in my precence at this time, just curious if they may hold any value, they are: I am curious to know if this is a valuable book-all I can find on the Internet is about reprints in and so I am assuming this must be a worthwhile book to be still reprinting it. It is in pretty good condition apart from the back covering of the spine. Thanks for any info on the book! Hi John, Thanks for the comment.

I have a few books that I am trying to find info on. I do not see a date in 2 of them along with no copy right date. All have tissue paper over the illustrations. They appear to be leather bound. But it could be some faux material. They all have the same designs on the spine. They are burgondy in color.

Thank You for your time. Gary, Please fill out an auction evaluation form on our website: I think the book is from the late , so before WW II. Published in Germany and survived the huge bookburning sessions of the Nazis. Do you have any idea of what it would be worth? Tom, To find out what this book may be worth at auction, please submit photos of the title page and copyright page using the auction evaluation form on our website: I have book in a Czechoslovakian dialect with a printed date of yes !

A person with a rudimentary knowledge of the language told me it is a biblical book. Unfortunately, I rescued the book from an incinerator so the top of the book is singed in one spot going down into the cover and title page about one inch. The cover is in very poor shape and the spine is virtually unreadable.

The pages are quite remarkable in their clarity. How do I determine if this book has any value? Thank you for your time and consideration. Jerry, Thanks for your comment. To find out what your book may be worth at auction, please send a photo of the title page and an auction evaluation form on our website: Thank you for your article! Stokes, great condition, blue cloth lining — no illustration or design embossed on the cover — simply the title. Presumably a christmas present from May to an unidentified recipient. Please submit photos of the book and an auction evaluation form on our website: I have stumbled across your webset by luck perhaps?

I have a book published in July of if my reading of Roman numerals has not failed me from the Roycroft Shop, East Astoria. The book well essay is titled: Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emmerson. I have been tried to find a value on the book before my father died but it appears the prices are scattered all over the place. The edition I own has a green suede cover, a hand-drawn portrait inside covered with vellum, the thick paper is not evenly cut to me-as an artist-it almost appears as handmade paper. Where would I find a more accurate price on this book? Their names are as follows: To find out what the value may be at auction, please submit photos and an auction evaluation form on our website: Hi, just6 wondering if there is a reply to my questions of Nov.

I have inherited a large collection of old books. I have found one that came with a dust cover that is not paper but a flower printed cardboard. Signed by him as a Christmas gift Published by Dorrance and Company Philidelphia.

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It came with a post card to order new books, a bulletin with his picture announcing his new books and a reprint of an article from The Sunday Vindicator, May 8, with a detailed story of the author. The book is in excellent condition. To find out what your books may be worth at auction, please submit photos and an auction evaluation form on our website: It is a hard back in fairly good shape, has all the pages and a library stamp on the first blank pages. I have been quoted various prices from various people, few of whom i actually feel have any clue about what they are talking about.

Is it an actual first edition? Any info or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I have an Grams unraveled Atlas of the world.

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A House Divided.
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To find out what your atlas may be worth at auction, please submit photos and an auction evaluation form on our website: I paid bucks for it! To find out what your copy of Morals and Dogma may be worth at auction, please submit photos and an auction evaluation form on our website: Green cloth boards, no dust jacket.

Book is in overall good condition. To find out what your Burroughs book may be worth at auction, please submit photos and an auction evaluation form on our website: I was going through my mothers old things and found a book by Maurice Shadbolt: Summer Fires and Winter Country. Can you help me with where to look to see if the book is worth something? Library of Congress catalog Card Number Signature in book of George C.

League Press [], Montgomery, Alabama Binding: The authors name is not on the book and the only printing info is as follows: S for the Southern District of New York. There is a photo of Hampton Court covered by tissue paper in the front of the book. Can you please tell me if this is worth anything. These books are not something we would handle at auction.

Hello, My mother has a full set of Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedias from the s in perfect condition.

Rabelais's Carnival.
The New Evangelization?
Rabelais's Carnival.
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They seem to be leather bound or some sort of very durable binding and have gold leaf on them. I also have 5 boxes of vintage books that my senior in-laws want me to sell. Also, do Christian Bibles ever accumulate much value? Bibles need to be very special to be valuable.

Also, collectors are interested in first editions of different Bible translations, and other landmarks in Bible scholarship. It was published by the John W. It does not give a year when they where published. These books appear to be quite old. I was wondering if you can determine what year they where published and the value of them. Thankyou for your time. I have a copy of Narratives and Adventures of Travellers in Africa. The book is in poor shape, with fading on the cover,spine and back, and the binding inside has separated.

I could not find a date anywhere, though the cover says Alta Edition. What does make this book interesting is that it was bound backward. Does this make a book any more valuable? Philip gives the book Martin Luther year, luther on its last page make notes about it in Latin.

Apparently the book was in the City Library in Subotica — Serbia at that time Kingdom of yogoslavia until when Subotica was occupied by Hungarians. After that this and number of other valuable books has gone missing! Any information about this book will be greatly appreciated. Also do you know how would one go about searching for such book? Thanks to Google Books I have complete pdf file of the Austrian book. I have a red letter new testament bible Lic. Lay of the bell. I have a book titled: This is what is engraved on the front cover.

It is published by Charles Schribner, copyright What are your thoughts? Can you tell be approximate value range of and or direct me perhaps to a Biblical specialty site for:. Adam Clarke published for: Methodist Episcopal Church, Mulberry-Street. This website should help you out: Edited and prefaced by R. This is from the private library of E. Randall of Baker University signed and dated November 24, Please tell me a value. This Charles Lamb book is not something we would handle at auction. The cover is not in great shape, and the binding is very loose. While there are a few pages that are soiled by time, the illustrations show very little signs of fading and are in overall great shape.

The book was a gift from the first dean of the Duke Law School, and has an inscription from him not sure if this hurts the value or not. I have an antique book Love-songs of childhood by eugene field copyright and one hundred narrative poems by scott, foresome and company copyright and some other antique books in very good condition im curious of the worth. All pages intact with no tears.

Any ideas on it? All Blue with gold print Sinclair Lewis imprint on front with sig. Hi Phyllis, To find out what your Sinclair Lewis and Robert Louis Stevenson books may be worth at auction, please submit photos and an auction evaluation form on our website: I have a copy of Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert…dated by Bibliotheque-charpentier printed in french. Book is bound in brown leather and marbled colored front and back.

Is this a book of any value? Valerie — Thanks for the comment. The publishing date is sept.

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I have not been able to find a copy for sale anywhere. Is this book worth anything? I am not a book collector but I enjoy antiques. I currently have a book that I believe is an original print as in printed in the year indicated from titled Tasker Jevons; The Real Story. I currently have this book for sale on eBay. The pictures of the book can be viewed on my ad at http: Good luck with the sale. One of the oldest books I have is titled: Front and back cover OK. The spine is in bad shape. Chris, To find out what your book may be worth at auction, please submit photos and an auction evaluation form on our website: I have a agamemnon of aedchylus translated by robert browning, with half of the pages uncut at the top.

The pages are yellow how much is this worth? This Charles Dickens book is not something we would handle at auction. It is in excellent like new condition with a dust cover. It has never been checked out. Ville Du Havre November 23, from Mrs. Adams of Augusta, Georgia. Written at Sea November 28, I have been trying to look up a book now for a long time. I can not find it any where. I would like to find the value to know how safe of an area I should keep it in. Thank you for your help! The person I got it from received it in Is there any value to this book. This Hans Christian Andersen book is not something we would handle at auction.

Robey Is it worth anything? Marge, This real estate book is not something we would handle at auction. The value of this H. I have 6 paperback books from the Riverside Literature series. Dates range from Do these books have any value? Thank you so much for your help. This Riverside Literature series is not of high value and is not something we would offer at auction. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise.

My sister has three books she would like some information on please. She said it was published by the Worthington Company. She says it is in fair condition. Thompson, fair condition, published date by Lovell and Corele Group? I believe he served in in Chile. The copyright has first then It was first published by Phillips Mulbrey? It is in worn condition.

I have a not great condition book some of the binding at the bottom is torn off and pages very yellowed Arlington Edition of David Copperfield. Cover is hard and intact but a 1 cm gash and edges worn. Published New York; Hurst and Co. Inside Back cover has an ad for Sohmer and Co. Hi Kelly, This David Copperfield book is not of high value and is not something we would offer at auction. I have a few old books that I am wondering if your auction would be interested in.

Selling Antique Books, Part II: Eight Ways to Determine Your Books’ Value

Websters Handy Dictionary illustrated. Merriam then under it says by Eloise W. Abbie Wood Steward and under that has a W. I see nothing of dates. It is a Bible that my grandmother had. There is no date anywhere other than handwritten is Harley Pursley born Apr 23, Hi Lisa, These old books are not of high value and are not something we would offer at auction. I have a copy of Henry Noel Humphries, ed. One page is free from the binding but it is otherwise very good condition. Can you please give an idea of the value? Kathryn, This book is not something we would handle at auction.

Most were not bought as collector items, I think. Lomax was a real character, or perhaps a fictitious name inscribed by an ambitious book dealer. Nothing against any book dealers, by the way. Book is in excellent shape. However, it has a fake dust jacket marked Facsimile Dust Jackets L. Should I try to sell it with or without the fake cover? What is an estimated value either way? Green cover with gold emboss. Copyright by Houghton, Mifflin and Co.

Boston and New York Riverside press Cambridge. It has been stored in a musty basement for years. Two of the volumes appear to be signed. I plan to donate these to the Poetical Society, but would like to know what their value might be? The pages appear to be all there and I can see only one handwritten pencil note on the inside—in German. This copy of Das Kapital is not of high value and is not something we would offer at auction.

I have the following books: Robert Schuller 18 Volume Collectible set. The works of zane grey volume hardcover set. Also, is there a place where I can sell these books? Should I approach an auction house with the books and ask for valuation? These sets of books are not something we would handle at auction. I have the following book: Signature and date of on owners page. Second story in book is Agnes Grey. Good condition with some worn edges.

Anne — This copy of Wuthering Heights is not of high value and is not something we would offer at auction. This book has been donated to the Newseum but have always been curious about its potential among collectors. Kennedy with a personal greeting to my uncle who was a friend of the family. This was given as a gift at the time of its publishing.

Joseph — This book is not something we would handle at auction. I have a first edition copy of Midnight Weddings by Mrs. Meeke, which I hear is very rare, published London, by T. It has the publisher stamp in the front of the book, the pages are readable, the cover is a bit old and worn. James — This book is not something we would offer at auction. The older books are signed I followed her around book fairs in the 70s and 80s.

I am interested in an evaluation of my collection for estate purposes. I am also interested in selling the duplicates I have and possibly the entire collection. Can you help me or refer me to a source that can? All have their dust jackets which are protected with sleeves and the books have been in climate comtrolled storage for some years.

I have been out of that loop for some time and have lost touch with my contacts. Hi Sam, This collection is not something we would offer at auction. You may wish to contact the Appraisers Association of America for assistance with an assessment: Revell Company, copyright Judy — This book is not of high value and is not something we would offer at auction.

Kelly — This book is not of high value and is not something we would offer at auction. I have 12 books published in of Shakespeare. They are leatherbound I think, and in very good condition considering the age. Are these worth anything more than sentimental value? Hi Kim — No, these book are not of high value and are not something we would offer at auction. Covers are a dark tan with black printing. I do plan to sell it but have no idea of value. Thank you so much for your helpful response to my question about the book I have.

I have the bible designed to be read as living literature the old and new testaments in the king James version Arranged and edited by Ernest Sutherland Bates. Copyright by Simon and Schuster, inc. Conley Company, Publishers, Gregory — Your bible and copy of Poems of Passion are both not of high value and are not something we would offer at auction. These old books are not of high value and are not something we would offer at auction. Before posting a comment here, please look for your book on a used book website: To get an idea of the types of books Skinner offers at auction, browse our past auction catalogs.

New Edition and illustrated. Translated from French to English in Two Volumes in one.

Prologue: Coversation Over a Chessgame (The Fifth Mistress Gabriel Book 1)

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Antique Books Value Guide | Skinner Inc.

Selling Antique Books, Part II: Eight Ways to Determine Your Books’ Value

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