1890 Rare Early Edition - Five Weeks in a Balloon by JULES VERNE, illustrated by Edouard Riou.
(Description)
Author: Jules Verne. Edouard Riou, illustrator.
Title: Five Weeks in a Balloon. A Voyage of Exploration and Discovery in Central Africa. With Sixty-Four Illustrations by Riou.
Publisher: London, Sampson Low, Marston, & Company, no date (1890). Eight Edition (stated).
Language: Text in English
Size: 7.5" X 6".
Pages: viii-352 pages.
Binding: Attractive and very good original full-cloth binding (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight, and clean, rare foxing or staining - as shown, school prize bookplate dated 1893 on the first endpaper - as shown, handwritten date on the title page - as shown).
Illustration: Profusely and nicely illustrated with 64 in-text and full-page illustrations by Riou.
Estimate: (USD 300 - USD 400).
The book: Rare and attractive eighth edition of Five Weeks in a Balloon, or, Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen (French: Cinq semaines en ballon) , the famous adventure novel by Jules Verne, first published in French in 1863. It is the first novel in which he perfected the "ingredients" of his later work, skillfully mixing a plot full of adventure and twists that hold the reader's interest with passages of technical, geographic, and historic description. The book gives readers a glimpse of the exploration of Africa, which was still not completely known to Europeans of the time, with explorers traveling all over the continent in search of its secrets.
The author: Jules Gabriel Verne (8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. Verne was born to bourgeois parents in the seaport of Nantes, where he was trained to follow in his father's footsteps as a lawyer but quit the profession early in life to write for magazines and the stage.
The illustrator: Édouard Riou (2 December 1833 – 27 January 1900) was a French illustrator who illustrated six novels by Jules Verne, as well as several other well-known works.