Author: DUSAULX (Jean):
Title: De la Passion du Jeu, Depuis les Temps Anciens jusqu'a nos Jours. Dedie a Monsieur.
Description: A Paris, de l'Imprimerie de Monsieur, 1779. FIRST EDITION. 2 parts in one volume. 8vo, 193 x 121 mms., pp. xxxvi, 267 [268 blank]; [iv], 335 [336 blank], including half-title for each part, with woodcut of French Royal arms on title-page, and engraved head-pieces to each part,contemporary quarter French calf, marbled boards (soiled), spine gilt to floral motif, red morocco label (chipped); spine rubbed and dried, corners worn. A reformed or retired gambler himself, Jean Dusaulx (1728-1799) fulminates against the iniquity of gambling and its dire social and personal consequences. A French politician, he was also a scholar, a translator of Juvenal, and a disciple of Rousseau. He was president of the Conseil des Anciens, and in that position he actively sought to suppress lotteries, games of chance, and most forms of gambling. So far as I can tell, it was in the latter part of the 18th century that a concern emerged for the psychological make-up of the gambler; that perception of the gambler became more prominent in social discourse than on the social differences between various forms of gambling. Dated to January 1, 1779, the presentation inscription on the front free endpaper reads, "A mon ami Charles de Stropère / avec mes meilleurs voeux / et l'espérance que ce petit livre / devienne son livre de chevet". In English this is roughly, "To my friend Charles de Stropère / with my best wishes / and the hope that this little book / becomes his bedside book". It is signed "Adalbert de Crommelynck". The difficulty in identifying the inscriber and inscribee may be due to their names, as given here, being playful nicknames of some kind, rather than birth names. It is striking, however, to realise that, considering the content of the book, Adalbert was likely greatly hoping Charles would gamble less, and, with that end firmly in mind, would read all about the ills of gambling every night before sleep. Bibliographically, the inscription also has striking implications, if the date is correct. This is a non-authorial presentation inscription of a book whose publication date is 1779 according to its title-page, but the inscription is dated to the first day of the first year of the purported year of publication. It seems, first, rather improbable that a book actually published in the year 1779 would be actually available on the first day of that year; it seems more improbable still that someone who is not the author could get hold of the book on the first day of the year of publication. It seems likely that either the date of inscription or the date of publication is, prima facie, false. Curiously, not in Kress, Goldsmiths' or Einaudi.

Keywords: gambling psychology prose


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