DROLL STORIES -- Collected from The Abbeys of Touraine--Illustrated By Gustave Dore by Balzac, Honore De - 1874

London, England: London: Published for the Trade, 1874. First English Edition. Hardcover. Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7. Gustave Dore. Type: Hardback First English Edition, privately printed in London, 1874. Honore de Balzac's stories collected from the Abbey of Touraine. Translated into English, complete and unabridged, with 48 illustrations. Hardcover Book in Good Condition. No Jacket, as issued. Illustrated by Gustave Dore. Bound in red cloth with paper panel on spine with red and black lettering. Top edge gilt. Lower and fore-edge rough cut. Sewn binding is tight and square. Rear inner hinge cracked, some webbing visible. Pages are clean and unmarked, toned, crisp, not fragile. Gustave Dore delightfully illustrated the stories. Frontis: Droll Stories (Les Contes Drolatiques)-in brown tones. The first volume published by Gosselin of Paris, March, 1832, caused quite a stir; he claimed protection for his book as a work of art--as it is, in the same sense as Rabelais, Boccaccio, and Queen of Navarre are. Balzac has painted an epoch in these stories, a marvelous picture of French life and manners in the 16th Century, with a vast amount of historical information. It was written in the 19th century in imitation of the style of the 16th--a triumph of literary archaeology. Stories paginated separately: Translator's Preface, iii; The First Ten Tales: pages 1-320; The Second Ten Tales: pages 1-293. 8 x 5.6 inches. London: Privately published for the Trade 1874. Translator's Preface dated London, January, 1874 is the only date stated and states that this is the first English version.