The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

Published in 1881, this novel follows Sylvestre Bonnard, an aging Parisian scholar of the Institute, whose quiet life among manuscripts is interrupted twice: first by a chase after a rare chronicle, then by the fate of Jeanne Alexandre, granddaughter of a woman he loved in youth. When he finds the girl in a harsh boarding school, he acts outside the law to protect her, and the 'crime' of the title is this private rescue. Lawyers, a fairy-tale housekeeper, and academic rivals surround the pair. The book is a comic, gentle novel of conscience and guardianship, not a detective story.

Bound in white cloth blocked with a brown and pink pattern. Variant coloured spine labels seen. White dust-jacket printed in brown and pink.