HOFFMANN (E. T. A.): Meister Floh. Ein Märchen in sieben Abe - Lot 164

HOFFMANN (E. T. A.): Meister Floh. Ein Märchen in sieben Abentheurn zweier Freunde. Frankfurt, Fr. Wilmans, 1822. One volume. 11.5 by 18.5 cm. (2)-267-(3) pages. Contemporary full paper, with a framed chip on both boards, drawn by Hoffmann himself, in its slipcase. Two corners a little crushed, small paper losses (not serious) on the cover, foxing in the text. First edition of this story, in which HOFFMANN most wickedly ridicules the Philistine bourgeoisie of his time. Peregrinus Tyss, a shy man with a childlike heart, has great difficulty approaching women. Not that he doesn't feel drawn to them, but they scare him. Now he's accused, against all the evidence, of forcibly abducting a damsel, and threatened with a trial that will ruin his reputation forever... The innocent man would get off scot-free if fate, joker and cruel by turns, hadn't placed in his path the most stubborn, the most stubborn, the most stubborn, the most stubborn...