The Short Stories, , both by Edward D. Dugan, ; Maupassant by Albert H. Chaplin, ; Maupassant in the Hall of Mirrors by T. Stivale, ; Voices of Authority: With more than short stories to his credit, Guy de Maupassant was incomparably the most prolific short story writer of nineteenth-century France. It only increases one's incredulity to learn that all of his stories were produced within the span of just ten years. The quality of his stories was certainly uneven, but enough of them—perhaps as many as one-quarter—were of such high quality, and a number of them so innovative in concept and technique, that Maupassant is today generally accorded the distinction of having made the greatest contribution to the development of the French short story.
Outside of France, too, Maupassant is widely regarded as a major figure in the short story and as an inescapable influence. Few are the twentieth-century writers, in Europe or America, who do not acknowledge having studied Maupassant's work and learned something of the craft of storytelling from him. In the nineteenth century, when the history of the modern artistic short story began, few writers could have conceived the ambition of specializing in the short story at the outset of their careers, because it was not a viable option at the time.
Maupassant certainly did not set out to be the short story specialist he eventually became. He did not even start out as a writer of any kind. In his twenties he earned his living as a civil servant and dabbled in literature in his spare time; he tried his hand at poems, plays, and stories and wrote occasional reviews for various journals, hoping to attract attention and make a start. Meanwhile, he eagerly availed himself of the offer of a family friend and fellow-Norman, Gustave Flaubert , who proposed to help him with his writing and encouraged him in his ambition to become a novelist, like Flaubert himself.
Afterwards Maupassant always acknowledged Flaubert as his master and his model and was wont to say that Flaubert taught him everything he knew about writing fiction. Although his mentor did not live to see his pupil's success, Maupassant did indeed go on to write six successful novels, three of which are still widely read and admired.
Nevertheless, at the age of 30, Maupassant discovered his own talent for the shorter forms of fiction when a novella he had written about the Franco-Prussian War won wide and enthusiastic acclaim. This was the story called "Ball-of-Fat," which first appeared in as one in a volume of six antiwar stories and made Maupassant a literary celebrity overnight.
His career thus launched and his storytelling talent uncovered, Maupassant became a regular contributor to several journals, turning out stories at an amazing rate, most of them relatively short—about 3, words—to meet the stringent space needs of journals.
Fort Comme La Mort
By he had enough stories that met his personal artistic standards learned from his mentor, Flaubert to publish a first collection. It would be followed by at least a dozen more such volumes before illness put an end to his career. The most conspicuous hallmarks of Maupassant's storytelling skill were rapidity of movement and precise observation. He learned to "set up" a story situation with just a few brief sentences, carefully selecting and describing the details of character and place most essential for grasping the significance of the story, and he then moved the reader swiftly and with stunning economy through the action of the plot, stopping the moment the meaning of the narrative had become fully revealed to the alert reader.
The procedure also had the advantage of transforming the handicap of space limitation imposed by journals into a rich source of narrative power. Maupassant developed to a high degree of perfection the art of making enforced brevity work to his own advantage. The celebrated tale "The Necklace" can be profitably studied as a consummate example of what Maupassant's techniques of precise observation and rapid narration can accomplish. The ending of that story is particularly noteworthy, because it not only brings sudden enlightenment to the reader but to the story's characters as well.
Maupassant was, of course, not content to let his basic storytelling techniques decline into a formula to be applied mechanically to any number of different plots. He became ingeniously inventive at finding ways to shift attention away from the ending, for example, by placing a dramatic climax in the center of a story and allowing the ending to be quietly reflective, as happens in the farcical novella about a house of prostitution called "La Maison Tellier. The illustrations depicting Italian landmarks and famous works of art including Praxiteles' faun help transport the reader to the romantic Italian setting.
Oddly, the beautifully executed binding here is unsigned; it is clearly not an amateur production, but rather the work of an accomplished workshop.
- Parent topics.
- Gérard Cochet;
- The Awakening The Resurrection?
- Œuvres complètes.
Issued without title or text. Publisher's grey cloth, covers bordered in black, upper cover lettered in black. A rare illustrated vegetable seed catalogue issued by Vilmorin, the best known Parisian seedsman. Founded in and still operating , Vilmorin was noted as among the earliest seed producers to import exotic plants and among the first to issue a trade catalogue. The present catalogue is chromolithographed throughout with mulitiple images per page, and includes varieties of Swiss chard, eggplant, carrot, lettuce, cauliflower, squash, leek, turnip, onion, pepper, peas, radish, tomato and celery.
Bound in full chocolate morocco, spine with five nerves, on casters golden headdresses, date tail, double gilt on cups, lace frames and quintuple gilt on the guards, guards and contreplats of handmade paper, blankets and kept back, golden on witnesses, elegant binder signed G. Cover art by Riou. Beautiful copy well established. Hamburg und seine Bauten. Hamburg, Selbstverlag des Vereins; Meissner, Mit Literaturhinweisen sowie Namen- und Sachregister.
Unter Mitwirkung namhafter Fachgenossen. Verlag von Konrad Wittwer.
Fort Comme La Mort : Guy de Maupassant :
Mappe insgesamt noch gut erhalten, kartonanteil fleckig. Beispiele aus dem Inhalt: Jede Lieferung mit Rechnung und ausgew. Deutsch Gewicht in Gramm: Some light browning, lower hinge to vol. Published the same year as the first edition. One of the best travel books ever written. Stanley was not only the deliverer of Livingstone, but also one of the founders of Tanganyika.
In incident, suffering and privation, this was perhaps the most extraordinary of all journeys in Africa. Francis Edwards Bookshop ]. The object is to find a missing item s hidden within the image. You are told what to look for in a riddle caption, which can be a short phrase, or a few lines of dialogue or verse. Most of the time the missing item is a human head, concealed in garment, in shrubbery, in background structures, or the contours of the primary image.
The missing item can also be a dog or other animal, an object, or even lettering. Sometimes the same head represents two, the second revealed simply by flipping the card. The quest ranges widely in difficulty, from apparent at first blush to being extremely elusive. The obvious missing items are by no means necessarily inferior -- we can find the artist's visual trickery quite clever and satisfying just the same.
The imagery is very much in the style of Pellerin -- line drawings in blue or red, literal, yet also cartoonish, detailed as conducive to concealment , yet simple, at the same time. Cards are 11 by 8. We have cards, out of cards, based on there having been a dozen sets of forty cards each -- we are told these numbers on each of the envelopes. Thus this would appear a more than complete set, with some duplication, as we noticed going through the cards. We assume that there are different cards, as the duplicates are few and far between, but we can not state this with percent certainty.
We also have just ten of the 12 original envelopes, with cards now being stuffed in the envelopes with no knowledge of what came with what. Envelopes are age toned but generally intact and well-preserved. Occasional soiling of the cards. Most cards are clean. White Fox Rare Books and Antiques ].
Each volume in a felt-lined black morocco slipcase. Brignot, all with tissue guards. Limitations page with the engraved bookplate of Hannah M. Handsome outside with their inlaid covers as well as inside with their morocco doublures , this is a highly attractive group of poetry volumes that also features a very restricted press run, inserted material including more than 20 original watercolors , and a distinguished provenance.
In addition to poetical works, the volumes contain biographical information on the authors as well as extensive annotations. These especially handsome books are in a remarkable state of preservation: Their previous and very probably original owner was Hannah M. Pirages Fine Books and Mediev ]. Die 58 Ansichten zeigen u. Die 6 Zinnfiguren stellen Wanderer dar. Deckelillustration, 27 x 29 cm [Attributes: Le texte va de la p.
The photograph is Near Fine, a stunning portrait with excellent tones and fantastic detail. The mount shows traces of soiling and handling to the front and back, worn corners, and some small pieces of paper stuck along the upper edge. The previous owner wrote their personal information in ink on the lower left corner of the mount: They would serve as an assistant or apprentice to the wives and concubines, and might in time rise in status to become one of them. Most odalisques were part of the Imperial Harem, which is to say, the household of the Sultan.
The likelihood that the woman in the portrait was part of the Imperial Harem is quite clear, given the people who took the photograph. Pascal Sebah was a leading photographer in Constantinople, selling images of the city, ancient ruins in the surrounding area, portraits, and local people in traditional costumes to tourists. Sebah's son, Johannes Jean then became involved in the business when he was only 16 years old. Jean grew up to become a talented photographer in his own right, but to profit from his father?
Given the time period, the woman in the portrait would have been in the household of Abdul Hamid II, 34th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire - the last Ottoman Sultan to rule with absolute power. His reign fell within a period of decline, during the waning years of the Ottoman Empire. The odalisque is seen in contemporary costume, seated amidst a rug and cushions. The decorated walls, the hookah, and the smoke-filled room are all evocative of the Orientalist style. While both Princeton and the Library of Congress have large collections of Ottoman photographs from this time period, many specifically taken by this firm, the collections mainly highlight the modernization of the Empire, featuring images of architecture, technological advancements, harbors, and the military.
Rare indeed are images of this nature, depicting a woman of this station in an environment which was forbidden to all but a few select individuals. Captain Ahab's Rare Books ]. Johann im Pongau - Liechtenstein-Klammen No. Jeweils am Unterrand betitelt, nummeriert sowie mit Angabe des Verlags.
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The Picture of Dorian Gray. Ward Lock and co. Ward Lock edition, although lacking general title page, advertising matter and so on. Additionally, pasted on the front free endpaper there is a cutting from The Standard, dated August 23, , in which Wilde's bibliographer Stuart Mason discusses the early publications of the novel. Covers faded and rubbed at the edges.
Internally near fine, with gutter crack to p. With illustrations on steel and wood, by eminent American artists. Contemporary black half morocco, spines lettered in gilt, raised bands, compartments with central tools gilt, marbled endpapers and edges. Steel-engraved additional illustrated title to each and 47 other plates, numerous wood-engraved illustrations, many full-page.
Boards faintly rubbed and with a few minor scuffs, first volume with slight silverfish damage affecting margins of a few leaves and fore edges of rear endpapers, intermittent foxing. A handsomely bound set of the UK edition of American poet William Cullen Bryant's monumental monograph on North America, a classic work of Americana which proved to be an instant success when it was first published in the US in ? The superb plates were engraved by Robert Hinshelwood, a Scots engraver who emigrated to America in where he established a considerable reputation for his work on landscapes.
His painstaking and highly detailed work was much appreciated not only by the publishing houses that employed him, such as Appleton's and Harper's, but also by the Continental Bank Note Company who for a time employed him producing plates for currency. Half cloth bindings fir, smooth back, parts of title sheepskin tan, marbled paper plates, guards and contreplats of handmade paper, first boards lined with coverage gaps and angular preserved, modern binding.
Illustrated book of 52 full-page engravings. Manuscrito original de la Genealogia de la Familia Seyfried, escritura gotica con dibujos y orlas originales hechas totalmente a mano. Muy bello ejemplar y raro. Ref 20 Biblioteca A. Autograph signed by the author librettist Philippe Gilles. A small head glued back tear which also includes a small lack Length, partially shaded guards.
Macmillan and Company , Second Edition. The First Color Edition of Alice. It was intended, wrote Carroll, "to be read by children aged from nought to five. Say rather to be thumbed, to be cooed over, to be dogs'-eared, to be rumpled, to be kissed With a 3-page Easter Greeting and a one page Christmas Greeting from the author, and two pages of the works of Lewis Carroll, following the end of the text.
The covers, designed and coloured by Gertrude Thomson, has an illustration of Alice asleep under a tree, on the front, with a picture of the March Hare on the back. Glazed cover boards are rubbed and shelf worn along extremities especially at corners, with some age toning and soiling that does not impinge on the cover illustration or title.
Interior pages are clean and unmarked, except for prior owner's last name inked to front paste down and short inscription inked to verso of the frontispiece page. Mechanical enlargements of 20 of John Tenniel's illustrations, from the originals and printed in color. Text printed in brown ink. The nursery version of this classic story was conceived by Carroll to be "read, to be cooed over, to be dogs' eared, to be rumpled, to be kissed" by children from nought to five. Edward Evens printed ten thousand copies of the first run on toned paper.
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson Lewis Carroll rejected the entire edition, in sheets, as he felt the illustrations were "far too bright and gaudy" and subsequently the text and illustrations were reprinted. The rejected sheets, all four thousand copies, were sent to the United States and the book was published by Macmillan with a tipped-in preliminary leaf, frontispiece with tissue guard, and a title page dated Williams, Madan and Green, p.
Scarce in any condition.