LIFE OF HONORE DE BALZAC, Mary Frances Sandars, 1904 1st Ed., London John Murray

1904 First Edition of Mary Frances Sandars’ seminal biography of Balzac. “LIFE OF HONORE DE BALZAC” by M.F. Sandars. Also titled inside on credits page, “HONORE DE BALZAC: HIS LIFE AND WRITINGS BY MARY F. SANDARS with portraits LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 1904”
Printed by Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury
396 pages. Photogravure plates of Balzac portraits. Amazingly great antique condition for a 117 year old book. The hand cut paper edges show hardly any aging or flattering or scraping of the edges. A contents page was not cut, as you can see in a photo above. This adds “irregularity” value to this book, where a binder made this minor mistake. Very tight binding. Mary F. Sandars doesn’t sound dated. Her language is simple and engaging. She tackles this very complex and larger than life personality, Balzac, with humor and pathos. Even though famous & making money, his spending was so out of control he could never make ends meet. Sandars captures this deftly.