SCUDÉRY (Madeleine de). Artamène, ou le Grand Cyrus. Paris, Augustin Courbé, 1650-1654. 10 large volumes in-8, fawn calf, spines decorated, coats of arms at the end, spotted edges (Binding late 17th century). First edition of this famous novel known as the longest French novel ever written, published by Mlle de Scudéry under the name of her brother Georges. "Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus is a key work for understanding 17th-century France and Europe. The many flattering allusions made by contemporaries demonstrate that the novel was widely read and commented on, to the point of constituting an unavoidable horizon of reference in the field of worldly culture" (www.artamene.org). The book's illustrations, by François Chauveau, include ten frontispieces, a portrait of the Duchesse de Longueville and thirty hors texte figures engraved on copper by various artists. The book's illustration, engraved on copper after François Chauveau, comprises 10 frontispieces and 30 out-of-text figures. The original publication of the novel took five years, between 1649 and 1654. Complete copies of all ten volumes are rare, and virtually impossible to find with all volumes dated correctly. As is often the case, the present copy contains the first two volumes in the third edition, dated 1653-1654, the third volume in the second edition, dated 1650 - two reprints of the very rare original of 1649-1650 - and the following seven volumes in the original edition (1651-1654). A precious and desirable copy bearing the arms of the Duc du Maine, one of Louis XIV's legitimate children. Louis-Auguste de Bourbon (1670-1736), duc du Maine, duc d'Aumale, prince souverain de Dombes and comte d'Eu, was the offspring of the double adultery between the king and the marquise de Montespan. As none of his children had children of their own, his colossal inheritance fell to Philippe d'Orléans and then to his son Louis-Philippe. From the library of Louis-Philippe, last King of the French from 1830 to 1848, with the seals of the Palais-Royal and Château d'Eu libraries on the titles. The portrait of the dedicatee is missing. The bindings are damaged or missing, the headband is missing, and the quires are browned or spotted. Tchemerzine, V, 781.