Paris Guide par les principaux ecrivains et artistes de la France.

1867. PARIS. Paris Guide par les principaux ecrivains et artistes de la France. Two volumes. I: xiv, 902, 27, [1] pp. II: xiv, 903-2139, [1] pp., illustrated throughout, including many folding plates and maps. Thick 8vo, 190 x 120 mm., bound in publisher's red cloth, gilt armorial at center of front panels, title gilt on spine. Paris: Librairie Internationale, 1867. First edition. One of the most interesting guide books to nineteenth-century Paris with essays on every aspect of the city by leading French writers and artists. In addition to the author of the introduction, Victor Hugo, well-known contributors include: George Sand, Nadar, Alexandre Dumas, Ernest Renan, Sainte-Beuve, Viollet-le-Duc and Ambroise Thomas. The first volume of this comprehensive guide covers art and science, with sections on important libraries, art schools, museums, and palaces, among other institutions and cultural sites. Volume two addresses the practice of everyday life in Paris, ranging from promenades and politics to transportation, prisons, and morgues. Both volumes are illustrated throughout with intricate wood engravings depicting views of historical sites, panoramas, and scenes of city life, with such diverse images as a view of the city taken from the Trocadero to an image of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. Additionally, each volume includes wonderfully detailed folding maps with an extensive corresponding street index in volume one. At once practical and poetic, this Haussmann-era guide paints a vivid portrait of Paris at the dawn of the modern age. Occasional light foxing, gilt on spine faded, joints tender, but overall an exceptionally well preserved set of this important guide book.