BABEUF (Gracchus). Du Système de dépopulation,... Lot 69

BABEUF (Gracchus). Du Système de dépopulation, ou la Vie et les crimes de Carrier: son procès, et celui du Comité révolutionnaire de Nantes. Paris, Se trouve à l'Imprimerie de Franklin, An III de la République [1794]. In-8, fawn half-calf with corners, smooth spine, green title page, untrimmed (modern pastiche binding). First edition of this pamphlet by Babeuf denouncing the Terror and its populicide system. Adorned with an engraved portrait of Jean-Baptiste Carrier. Taking the opportunity of the resounding trial of Jean-Baptiste Carrier (November-December 1794), a Montagnard proconsul sent on a mission to Nantes, Babeuf delivers a sweeping indictment of the revolutionary government and its theater of cruelty, the Vendée. [...] He exposes the "cadaverous ugliness" of the fatherland [...]. Babeuf had only one idea in mind: to tell the tragic story of this passage, from regeneration to purification, from the omnipotence of the people to their eradication, from the popular to populicide (Ronan Y. Chalmin, "La République populicide : relire Du Système de dépopulation de G. Babeuf" in Dix-huitième siècle, 2011/1, n°43). A few stains, with a few letters redone in pen on pp. 191-192. Scorch marks to lower corner of three leaves.