Pictures of the French: A Series of Literary and Graphic Delinations of French Character

Re-issue. 200pp, with nearly 100 engravings, some full page. Half-bound in leather over marbled boards, with blind tooled decorations and gilt lettering to spine (heavily rubbed at edges, minor leather loss at spine ends, and chipped on verso corners. Scuffed and worn. Internally neat and clean barring a few fingering marks on pages and strained gutters between endpapers. Tight, square and firmly bound. An enchanting volume depicting mid-19th century ideas of the French national stereotype, in pen portraits and illustrations, made all the more amusing (and telling) as it draws on the works of French authors and illustrators. Handsome, amusing, insightful.