Le diable à Paris

First edition, with the wood-engravings in their first impression: 212 full-page plates by Gavarni (with the exception of the final four, which are by Bertall), together with 800 illustrations in the text by Bertall. Gavarni's satirical wood-engravings, accompanied by captions, form an extraordinary profusion of illustrations, almost anticipating the modern comic strip. Particularly striking is the remarkable variety of typographical ornament, including decorative borders, tailpieces and other embellishments.
Contemporary bindings, circa 1860, in brown straight-grain half morocco over boards with corners. Spines with four false raised bands, gilt-ruled and decorated compartments, gilt titles, volume numbers and dates. One corner rubbed. Occasional scattered foxing. Untrimmed throughout. The original wrappers and spines have been preserved, with restorations to the latter, which have been backed.
The scarce original wrappers and spines have been retained. Twelve pages of prospectuses are bound in immediately after the front wrapper, comprising a table of contents, a preface by Hetzel, two plates by Gavarni and an advertisement for Lavallée's Histoire des Français.

A handsome set.

An extraordinary and quintessentially Romantic publication, Le Diable à Paris brings together contributions by some of the most celebrated writers of the period, including Balzac's reflections on married life and Musset's Mimi Pinson, accompanied by a wealth of illustrations. Such publications followed the enormous popularity of the Physiologies, which offered witty portraits of Parisian types, capturing both their physical appearance and their character. The first volume opens with a history of Paris by Lavallée, while the second begins with a geography of the city and concludes with its statistics. This richly detailed portrait of the French capital is particularly fascinating as a record of Paris before the sweeping transformations undertaken during the Second Empire.