Les Provinciales:

London: Printed by J.G. for R. Royston, 1657. First edition in English. 12mo. Additional engraved title by Robert Vaughan. [22], 504, 405-409, [7] pp. COLLATION: A-Y12 Z6 (complete with blank A1 and errata and catalogue at rear). Contemporary blind-ruled sheep; rubbed with some surface loss; occassional light staining to text, some small paper flaws, with flaw on K5 costing a few letters Anonymous translation, sometime incorrectly ascribed to John Evelyn, of Pascal's 18 Lettres provinciales (1656-1657), an attack on the Jesuits in defense of Jansenism, an ascetic reform movement within the Catholic Church that Pascal had joined in 1654. "This is one of the great polemical works of French literature, ranging in tone from ironical mockery to angry denunciation and using a number of very successful argumentational devices and tactics" (New Oxford Companion to Literature in French). "Pascal's weapon was irony, and the freshness with which the gravity of the subject contrasts with the lightness of the manner is an enduring triumph. The vividness and distinction of his style recalls the prose of Milton" (PMM). The engraved title uses Pascal's pseudonym Louis de Montalte. REFERENCE: ESTC R203163; PMM 140; Thomason, E.1623[1]