Les Contes Drolatiques, Gustave Dore Illustrations Balzac, Honoré De

Avertissement du Libraire lists the tenth edition with a publication date of 1884. Published in Paris by Garnier Freres, Libraires-Editeurs. Illustrated with 425 illustrations by Gustave Dore. Quarter leather and blue marbled covers. Hubbed spine with red title labels; both labels are incomplete. Wear around edges consistent with age. Deckled page edges. Red marbled endpapers. Owners name in ink on fly title leaf. Foxing throughout. Slight wave to page edges. The copious illustrations throughout are absolutely delightful. Les Cent Contes Drolatiques ("The Hundred Facetious Tales") known as Droll Stories is a collection of 30 ribald short stories by Honoré de Balzac. They resemble Boccaccio's Decameron, an assertion made by the author himself in the 1832 preface. They were first published in Paris in two separate volumes by Charles Gosselin and Edmond Werdet in 1832 and 1837. Of the intended 100 tales, Balzac completed only 30, grouped into three "decades." Droll Stories constitute an unusual project of playful and parodic writing motivated by the author's desire to "remain oneself by cooking in front of the mold of others." The collection caused a great scandal at the time, and was frequently banned in other countries, as much by its earthiness as by the fantasies of an imagined language.