The Comedie Humaine of Honore de Balzac: The Chouans and A Passion in the Desert

New York and London: Groscup and Sterling Company, 1901. Hardcover. Very Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7? - 9?" tall. Groscup and Sterling, New York and London, 1901. Hardcover Book in Very Good Condition. No jacket, as issued. CLASSIC FRENCH 19TH CENTURY LITERATURE. Honore de Balzac, 1799-1850, novelist and playwright, was one of the world's most notable writers in European literature and one of the founders of realism in European literature. His magnum opus was a series of almost 100 novels collectively called "La Comedie Humaine", which provide a portrait of all aspects of French society in the years after Napoleon's fall in 1815. He is known for his very human and realistic characters. Definitive Library Edition, Volume XXIX. This edition is limited to 1000 numbered copies for America. This is copy No. 202. Translated by Ellen Marriage. Edited, with a General Introduction and Preface by George Saintsbury. Many unopened pages (the leaves untrimmed on the fore-edges and therefore have the folding of its component sections still intact)--meaning that the leaves have not been severed from their neighbors with the paper knife used in rimming. Fore-edge and lower edge of trimmed pages uncut (sometimes called rough cut). Top edge gilt. Tan muslin boards w/ burgundy leather title panel pasted on spine, with sharp and bright gilt lettering. Corner tips and lower spine edges lightly worn. Boards very clean and unmarked. Text pages clean, clear, unmarked, no tears; lightly and evenly toned. There is a hill-shaped pale damp stain on the upper margin of many pages. Photogravure illustrations. Frontis onion skin protected with green lettering on side facing the illustration. Second frontis onion skin protected, no lettering.The three other illustrations are all onion skin protected with green lettering facing the illustration. A very handsome volume. 369 pages. Groscup and Sterling, New York and London, 1901.