Goncourt, Edmond & Jules. Pages from The Goncourt Journal. Edited, translated and introduced by Robert Baldick. With contemporary photographs by Nadar and others. London, The Folio Society, 1980. 15 x 23cm. 432 pages. Original litho-printed clothbound hardcover in protective slipcase. Orange stained top edges. Excellent condition. Slipcase shows slight signs of shelf wear.

The journal of the brothers Edmond and Jules de Goncourt is one of the masterpieces of nineteenth-century French literature, a work that in its richness of color, variety, and seemingly casual perfection bears comparison with the great paintings of their friends and contemporaries the Impressionists. Born nearly ten years apart into a French aristocratic family, the two brothers formed an extraordinarily productive and enduring literary partnership, collaborating on novels, criticism, and plays that pioneered the new aesthetic of naturalism. But the brothers’ talents found their most memorable outlet in their journal, which is at once a chronicle of an era, an intimate glimpse into their lives, and the purest expression of a nascent modern sensibility preoccupied with sex and art, celebrity and self-exposure. The Goncourts visit slums, brothels, balls, department stores, and imperial receptions; they argue over art and politics and trade merciless gossip with and about Hugo, Baudelaire, Degas, Flaubert, Zola, Rodin, and many others. [New York Review Books]

• Keywords: Biography & Literary Criticism · Classical & Old Literature · History & Culture · Literature
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 100144AB

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