97 - DORE (Gustave). A Picturesque, Dramatic, and Caricatural History of Holy Russia, Based on the Chronicles and Histories of Nestor, Nikan, etc. Annotated and illustrated with 500 magnificent engravings by Gustave Doré, woodcuts by the entire new school under the direction of Sotain. P., J. Bry the Elder, 1854. In-4, light green half-maroquin, corners, decorated spine, gilt head, untrimmed, cover illustration intact (Champs).

DORE (Gustave). A Picturesque, Dramatic, and Caricatural History of Holy Russia, Based on the Chronicles and Histories of Nestor, Nikan, etc. Annotated and illustrated with 500 magnificent engravings by Gustave Doré, woodcuts by the entire new school under the direction of Sotain. P., J. Bry the Elder, 1854. In-4, light green half-maroquin, corners, decorated spine, gilt head, untrimmed, cover illustration intact (Champs). First edition of this pamphlet directed against Russia’s actions in the East, particularly in the Crimea. A highly scathing satirical pamphlet, this book was immensely successful, but the government of Napoleon III bought up the entire print run in 1856 to destroy it, at the time of the Paris Conference where the peace treaty was being drafted. This copy features two red stains on pages 89 and 97. “The publisher intended to mark in this way the passages corresponding to Russia’s bloody periods. “Nowadays, one would have had to spill an entire bottle of red ink into the book,” wrote Carteret in 1924. Carteret, III/293. SUPERB COPY WITH A COVER IN MINT CONDITION.