Octave Mirbeau — Contes de la Chaumiere

Paris, G. Charpentier et E. Fasquelle, 1894. Leather. A smartly bound copy of this charming work from French novelist and writer Octave Mirbeau, in the original French. French. Petite Bibliotheque Charpentier. With a frontispiece. A collection of village stories of the author's native Calvados, filled with country talk from a mocking and cynical witness. The peasants the author targets combine all the faults attributed to them by the nineteenth-century ruling class: naive, devious, and calculating. But, beneath the satire often emerges a calm description of a landscape full of poetry. Written by Octave Henri Marie Mirbeau, a French novelist, art critic, travel writer, pamphleteer, journalist and playwright, who achieved celebrity in Europe and great success among the public. Previously held in the library of R. E. M. Maddison, a British doctor of philosophy. Bound in quarter calf with marbled boards. Externally, smart with minor wear to the extremities and fading to the spine. Spine label loosening slightly. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are very bright with minor age toning to the endpapers. Previous owner's bookplate to the front pastedown. Very Good Indeed . Ill.: None. Very Good Indeed .