{"product_id":"5337","title":"La Grande Esperance.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eParis: Éditions Montaigne.. [1933].\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eWhy do you exist? \u003c\/em\u003eInscribed by Richet\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 8vo. 188x120mm. pp. 292, [2], 16pp adverts. Original red wrappers. Fading to a small strip at the top edge of the upper wrapper. Some slight fading and creasing to spine. Pages uncut. A very good copy of Richet's last work, representing the final working out of his parapsychological ideas. Half title is inscribed \"À Madame H. Salter, en respectueux sympathie Charles Richet\". Madame Salter was Helen de Gaudrion Verall, the wife of William Henry Salter, who was, like Richet, the President of the Society for Psychical Research. Inside the front wrapper is the small ex libris ticket of Alan Gauld. Charles Richet (1850) was a scientist, the winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize for Medicine, and an all round polymath writing works on history, philosophy, theatre. He was also a pacifist and eugenicist. \u003cbr\u003eMuch of his later career was devoted to the paranormal and he worked closely with leading occultists and spiritualists and was a supporter of the disgraced William Eglinton. Richet invented the word ectoplasm, believed in ESP and the existence of a sixth sense. La Grande Esperance opens with the question: \"Pourquoi existes-tu?\" and ends with the, perhaps surprising, answer that \"ton espérance\" is \"Pour exister et pour avoir des enfants\". This rather sweet hope of an old man was fulfilled by his son and grandson following him into the world of medical science where they, too, became professors.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5337\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RICHET, Charles","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979986907513,"sku":"5337","price":350.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/45.Richet.jpg?v=1792757353","url":"https:\/\/voewoodrarebooks.com\/products\/5337","provider":"Voewood Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}