Jules Hetzel et Cie (1843 - 1914)

Illustrated edition by De Neuville and Benett. First edition in Engel's cartonnage cloth binding 'aux deux éléphants', with the palmettes on the last cover without the central macaron (which appeared as early as 1877). The later two-elephant covers are by Lenègre (from 1878). For the first time in the history of this collective edition, the order of the texts is reversed and the work begins with Le tour du monde en 80 jours, as is indicated in the title. Catalog J for 1877.
Soft green "aux deux éléphants" covers with Engel signature at bottom of spine. "Engel" type last cover with palmettes. Brown endpapers. Superb first plate, with bright gilt decoration and contrasted black...

New edition illustrated with in-text drawings by Benett and Neuville. First issue with these printed portrait covers with 3 black full page illustrations for Le Tour du monde and 2 frontispieces. This type of binding was used from 1892 to 1898, with variations.
Publisher's "Portrait collé" cloth binding. Plate signed Souze, binding by Lenègre. Lenègre "e" type second cover. Attractive first cover with bright gilt decoration, a little piece missing at the corner of the portrait, 2 vertical gray traces in the world map. One split corner. Spine quite good, with some of the gilt lacking in the lighthouse beams and rubbing near the beams; spine-ends folded. Second cover with 2 pale...

Les Contes de Perrault [The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault]
Hetzel, Paris 1880, 28,5x39cm, bound.
New edition illustrated with 40 full-page engravings by Gustave Doré. One of the copies beautifully printed on thick paper H. Odent & C^ie.
Red cloth publisher's binding. First cover, spine and part of the second cover uniformly lightened, covers and corners a little rubbed. A few quires slightly sticking out.
Rare copy scarcely without any foxing.

Original wood engraving signed on the plate by the artist and engraver. Composition by Gustave Doré and engraved by Héliodore Pisan on China paper and mounted on Dutch laid paper at the request of publisher Hetzel to illustrate his folio edition of Perrault's Contes in 1862.
A pale marginal dampstain, not touching the image.
These illustrations of the Contes are considered the most successful of this text: Gustave Doré offers an unprecedented dramatic vision. With him, everything contributes to the dramatization of the tale, from the theatrical staging of the tableau to the smallest details that generate a terrifying realism through the technique known as "tinted...

Original wood engraving signed on the plate by the artist and engraver. Composition created by Gustave Doré and engraved by Louis Brevière on China paper and mounted on Dutch laid paper at the request of publisher Hetzel to illustrate his folio edition of Perrault's Contes in 1862.
Rare worming and soiling in the margin not touching the image.
These illustrations of the Contes are considered the most successful treatment of this text: Gustave Doré presents an unprecedented dramatic vision. With him, everything contributes to the dramatization of the tale, from the theatrical staging of the tableau to the smallest details that generate terrifying realism through...

De la Terre à la Lune. Trajet direct en 97 heures
[From the Earth to the Moon Direct in 97 Hours]
Rare first edition of the second work by Jules Verne, and his first science-fiction novel, one year before the illustrated boards appeared.

Bound in half red shagreen, spine in four compartments set with blind tooled fillets and adorned with double gilt spine panels and a blind tooled spine panel, frame of blind tooling on the paper boards, white iridescent silk endpapers, all edges gilt, contemporary binding...

Œuvres complètes de Balzac [enriched with] handwritten letter signed by Balzac
First edition, one of the extremely rare copies all with the Furne address, including the last three volumes, complete with all its first print plates, set in an elegant, strictly contemporary, uniform binding. Our copy is also complete with the portrait of Balzac, on the frontispiece of the Comédie humaine and the biographical preface by George Sand which is most often missing.

“First collective edition under the title of Oeuvres, presenting a...

New edition, second printng. lllustrated with 111 drawings by Neuville and Riou, with 6 full-page color illustrations bearing the page numbers on which they are placed (92, 108, 124, 245, 268 and 276) and the mention 'Imprimerie Belin Frères' at rear.
Publisher's cloth binding 'au Globe doré type 4', spine decorated with the lighthouse motif, upper cover signed Blancheland, Engel relieur, back cover 'type i' (Jauzac).
A corner a little worn and the covers very slightly rubbed. Scattered foxing more pronounced at the beginning and end of the volume and a few sets of pages sticking out.

A nice copy. Probably the most famous of Jules Verne's novels.

First posthumous edition.
Contemporary half red shagreen binding. Raised-band spine decorated with 5 fleurons. Initials G. B. at tail. Some rubbing. Fresh overall. Good copy.
The posthumous collection, Turgenev having died in 1883, comprises 4 unpublished stories: Monsieur François, The Song of Triumphant Love (with a dedication to Gustave Flaubert), After Death (Clara Militch), A Fire at Sea; it opens with a chapter on Turgenev's life and work by Viscount E-M de Vogué, and concludes with Renan's speech delivered at the author's grave. The last story in the collection, A Fire at Sea, was dictated to Pauline Viardot by an ailing Turgenev shortly before his death.

First edition.
Contemporary half red shagreen binding. Spine with raised bands decorated with 5 fleurons. Initials G. B. at foot. Light rubbing. Good copy, very fresh.
Collection composed of 2 stories: La caille and Mémoires d'un nihiliste, 2 collections of short stories: Souvenirs d'enfance and 30 petits poèmes en prose (short stories in the manner of Baudelaire's petits poèmes en prose), and a play: Trop menu, le fil cassé.

First edition. Translation by Louis Viardot with the participation of the author.
Contemporary half brown shagreen binding. Spine with raised bands decorated with fillets on the raised bands. Traces of rubbing. Spine uniformly sunned. A copy of fine freshness.
Dimitri Roudine, written in 1855 by the author, is one of Turgenev's most important stories, who constructed in Roudine one of the most emblematic characters in Russian literature.

New edition, illustrated with drawings by Neuville and Benett.
Publisher's board with “an elephant, title in the fan” signed at the bottom of the Engel plate, lighthouse on the spine, type “i” second board according to Jauzac.
Top spine-end a little saggy, three tiny bumps to the leading edges of the upper board and some sections a little protruding, otherwise a beautiful copy.
Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours (Around the World in Eighty Days) is an adventure novel. The novel tells the story of the English gentleman Phileas Fogg's race around the word, who made a bet that he could achieve it in eighty days. He is accompanied by Jean Passepartout, his French...

Edition illustrated with drawings by H. Meyer engraved by Ch. Barban.
Hetzel publisher's board signed Engel also known as a type 3 “au globe”, spine with a lighthouse, Engel type “h” second board according to Jauzac, all edges gilt.
Volume very lightly warped, small brown foxing at the top of the plate of the first board. Scattered foxing and a tear to the top margin of page 63, original endpapers marginally faded as is often the case.
Un capitaine de quinze ans is an adventure novel essentially dedicated to the issue of slavery, and more precisely the trade of African slaves by other Africans.