BALZAC’S DROLL STORIES, ILLUSTRATED EDITION

 stories collected from the Abbeys of Touraine (For the Entertainment of Pantagruelists and No Others), Camden Publishing Company paperback, no date, John Camden Hotten, five shilling illustrated paperback edition, no date but the hardback is circa 1875.

This is an early edition with pink paper covers. There is some wear to the covers, they are rubbed and have small splits at the extremes but are in good condition for the age of the book. There is a very slight water stain to the bottom of the pages and a hint of light tint to the page edges but neither of these things is pronounced.

The stories are excellent, written in the eighteenth century after the much more open and explicit style of the sixteenth century. Superbly entertaining and well written, a treat for those whose taste has become jaded by some of the present-day efforts that are loosely termed ‘literary.’