LEE (Sophia). Le Souterrain, or Matilde. Paris, Théophile Barrois, 1786. 3 volumes in-12, mottled calf, smooth spine decorated, daffodil edges (Binding of the period). First French edition of one of the major works of the English Gothic novel. The Recess, or, A Tale of other times, by Sophia Lee (1750-1824), was originally published in London in 1783. The French translation was based on the second English edition by Pierre-Bernard Lamare. This first French edition is extremely rare. "By pouring all the richness of sentiment and the effusions of the heart into the somewhat summary scheme of the adventure novel, Sophia Lee definitively steered the evolution of the genre created by Walpole. This melancholy story [Le Souterrain] constitutes, opposite the Castle of Otranto, the other inexhaustible source of situations and themes, but these pathetic ones, from which the novelists, and above all the women novelists, of the future were to draw", writes Maurice Lévy in his classic study of The English Gothic Novel. A very attractive copy in expertly restored contemporary bindings, with new title-pieces. Martin-Mylne-Frautschi, 86.40 - M. Lévy, pp. 178-179.