Mirbeau (Octave) Sébastian Roch. Roman de Moeurs, first illustrated edition, number 4 of 6 copies on Chine with an original signed woodcut by Henri-Gabriel Ibels, half-title, woodcut plate printed in bistre by Henri-Gabriel Ibels, signed in lower margin in ink, plates and illustrations by the same, original pictorial wrappers bound in, later blue crushed half morocco, spine richly gilt and with a leather label, little rubbed, Paris, Charpentier et Fasquelle, 1906; and a first edition, presentation copy of his Neurasthénique, 8vo (2)


⁂ A novel of clerical sexual abuse in education, in which a young boy is abused and emotionally destroyed by his Jesuit school teachers. He is expelled from school on false charges, is unable to resume a relationship with his childhood sweetheart, and dies tragically in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. The novel first appeared in 1890, and with the disturbing illustrations by Ibels, in 1906.