GAVARNI (Paul) Lot n° 23

The Devil in Paris. Paris and Parisians. Mœurs et coutumes, characters and portraits of the inhabitants of Paris, a complete picture of their private, public, political, artistic, literary, industrial, etc., etc... Paris: J. Hetzel, 1845-1846. - 2 volumes in-8, 267 x 182 mm: frontispiece, (2 ff.), XXXII, 380 pp., 99 plates; (2 ff.), LXXX, 364 pp., 112 plates. Green percaline, upper plates decorated with scrolls with compartments at the corners and at the 4 cardinal points, those at the corners decorated with characters taken from the book, those in the centre decorated with monuments of Paris, special central iron representing the devil wearing his hood (volume 1) and the devil sitting under a house of cards (volume 2), in an oval frame decorated with flowers, second plates decorated in the same way but without the frame; smooth spine decorated with scrolls with a compartment at the top and bottom containing a figure and a monument respectively, a central oval frame containing the title, gilt edges (publisher's cardboard). Famous collective work offering a series of short stories that paint an interesting portrait of Parisian life in the mid-19th century. It is one of the jewels of what was called panoramic literature, giving a picture of society through the portrayal of representative types and the representation of typical places. The most beautiful jewels of this literature are Mercier's Le Tableau de Paris (1781-1788), Paris ou le livre des cent et un (1831-1832), Les Français peints par eux-mêmes (1840-1842) and Le Diable à Paris (1845-1846). The work is virtually free of freckles. Good copy