GAVARNI (illustrateur) Le Diable à Paris – Paris et les Parisiens – Moeurs et coutumes, caractères et portraits des habitants de Paris, tableau complet de leur vie privée, publique, politique, artistique, littéraire, industrielle, etc.etc.

Carteret, III, 203-207 ; Vicaire, III, 241-245 ; Ray, 236.

First edition.

A first issue copy (with the exception of the covers, the spine of which is undated and the second cover of which does not include the bookseller's catalogue).

The plate from Le Sculpteur de cimetières (volume I, p. 84) is here numbered 2 as indicated by Carteret.

This magnificent work, published in 106 issues, was written by many well-known literary figures, including George Sand, Charles Nodier, Honoré de Balzac, Alphonse Karr, Gérard de Nerval, Théophile Gautier and Alfred de Musset, to name but a few.

The rich illustrations comprise 212 plates (including the frontispiece; all by Gavarni, except for 4 in volume II by Bertall) and almost 800 engravings in the text.

"The major attraction of Le Diable à Paris resides in Gavarni"s plates, which are of even greater interest than the 320 wood engravings of his Oeuvres choisies. The engraving is superior for the most part, and they are new conceptions, not versions of his lithographs… Bertall, on the other hand, outdid himself in the variety and wit with which he commented on instances of diabolical intervention, beginning with his opening conception of the Hellish boredom from which the Devil was escaping. His designs make Le Diable à Paris the culmination of the Romantic tradition of diablerie, which began with the lithographic albums in 1820’s. It is also the last of the big books of collaborative illustration” (Ray).

This copy is enriched with the 4-page prospectus bound at the end of volume I.

A very fine copy with very wide margins, complete with its 212 plates.