LAUTREAMONT, Isidore Ducasse, known as the Count (1846-1870). Les Chants de Maldoror. Paris et Bruxelles, [1869] 1874; in-12, red half-chagrin with corners, gilt fillet, smooth spine (barely lightened), beige cover. Second state first edition of this masterpiece of French Romanticism according to Edmond Jaloux. The first publisher in 1869, Albert Lacroix, decided not to sell such a dark and subversive book: "life was painted in too bitter colours" (En français dans le texte, no. 293). He feared censorship in France, so he sent a few copies to the author - who was to die at the age of twenty-four in the following weeks - and the others remained in his reserves. The bookseller Rozez bought back the stock in 1874 and had the title and cover reprinted, but the book did not sell. It took another ten years for Max Waller, the editor of Jeune Belgique - who also died before his thirties - to discover and publish the author, who had been missing for fifteen years, for Lautréamont's star to finally rise. Only 6 copies are known to date from 1869. Cover washed and restored. Carteret, II, 503.