The Lys in the valley - Balzac - illustrated by Maurice Berty 1/150 1947

Description (ch)

• Read and admired throughout Europe, Balzac strongly influenced the writers of his time and of the following century.

The novel Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert is directly inspired by Le Lys dans la vallée, and Madame Bovary by La Femme de Trente Ans.

The principle of the return of characters evolving and transforming within a vast romantic cycle has notably inspired Émile Zola, Guy de Maupassant and Marcel Proust.

• "Princess of Clèves of romanticism", according to Paul Morand, "history of the Hundred Days, view of a castle of the Loire", according to Alain

The Lys is first of all the story of a sentimental education; a story of thwarted love, but also a story of the absence of love.

It is the story of a young man who confides, in a long letter, to his fiancée all the reasons which led him to previously adore a married woman, older than him and who has never yielded to her. Following this reading, the young girl, understanding that he still loves her, despite her death, and not feeling strong enough to fight against the memory of this love, leaves him.

Many readers who more or less shared such an experience during their youth can in fact find themselves in this story which touches on the universal. And yet, this work probably presents the most autobiographical transposed story that the author has ever written.

Novel written under the July Monarchy, by an author who advocates a reform of the aristocracy while defending it, Le Lys dans la vallée gives a glimpse of the criticism of the Restoration in a scene from private life.

• Maurice Berty is a French illustrator and painter - In 1924, the drawings of Maurice Berty appear in La Semaine de Suzette

Berty becomes very present in La Semaine de Suzette, illustrating the titles of recurring sections, illustrated stories, news.

Awarded by the Academy of Fine Arts in 1942, he produced advertising drawings for Le Bon Marché, and actively collaborated with Delagrave editions. He illustrated many French and foreign authors: Choderlos de Laclos, Lamartine, Dickens, Balzac, Châteaubriand, Andersen.

https://obvil.sorbonne-universite.fr/corpus/critique/champfleury_balzac-methode

https://www.centredelagravure.be/contributor/atelier-georges-leblanc/

http://www.lysdanslavallee.fr/fr/article/introduction-au-lys-dans-la-vallee

State

Very nice work with minimal wear and tear

• slight rubbing on the back of the case
• slight edge rubbing

• Fresh interior