1885 Rare First Edition - Edouard Laboulaye's Last Fairy Tales, Illustrated

An attractive 1885 First American Edition of Édouard Laboulaye’s final collection of fairy tales, in its striking original pictorial binding and profusely illustrated throughout.

Author: Édouard Laboulaye. Authorized translation by Mary L. Booth.
Title: Laboulaye’s Last Fairy Tales.
Publisher: New York, Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square, 1885.
Edition: First American Edition.
Language: English.
Pages: xviii, 382 pages, plus publisher’s catalogue.
Size: 7.5 x 5 inches.
Binding: Very good original publisher’s decorative cloth binding in brown and deep green, elaborately blocked and lettered in gilt, with a large stylized fairy design to the front board and matching decoration and gilt lettering to the spine. Light rubbing and wear to extremities, as shown, but the binding remains sound, bright, and particularly attractive. Protected in a removable mylar cover. 
Content: Very good. Tight and generally clean throughout with the expected light age toning and occasional minor marks. Name of a previous owner, dated 1894, on the first blank page, as shown.
Illustrations: Profusely illustrated in black and white with engraved plates and numerous illustrations throughout, including a portrait frontispiece of Édouard Laboulaye.

Estimate: USD 300–350.

The book:
Published shortly after Laboulaye’s death, Last Fairy Tales gathers a wonderfully imaginative group of stories in the tradition that had made him one of the nineteenth century’s most admired French writers for younger readers. The tales combine witches, giants, enchanted creatures, transformations, supernatural happenings, and moral allegory, while retaining the wit and philosophical undertones characteristic of Laboulaye’s writing.

This American edition was translated by Mary L. Booth and handsomely produced by Harper & Brothers, with extensive engraved illustration and a particularly successful publisher’s binding. The large green fairy silhouetted against the stylized leaf on the upper board makes this an especially appealing example of late nineteenth-century decorative book design and an attractive addition to a collection of fairy tales or illustrated Victorian books.

The author and translator:
Édouard René Lefèbvre de Laboulaye (1811–1883) was a French jurist, historian, author, and political thinker whose writings championed liberty and democratic ideals. Beyond his scholarly and political work, he became widely known for his collections of fairy tales, in which fantasy and folklore frequently serve as vehicles for wit, morality, and social observation. He is also remembered for proposing the idea of a monumental gift from France to the United States that ultimately became the Statue of Liberty.

Mary Louise Booth (1831–1889) was an American author, translator, historian, and one of the most important women editors of the nineteenth century. She served as the first editor of Harper’s Bazaar and translated numerous French works into English, including several of Laboulaye’s books. Her fluent and lively translations helped introduce his literary and political writings to a broad American readership.