SIENKIEWICZ H. - Quo vadis - in French. 1901-1904. illustrated by J. Styka.

SIENKIEWICZ Henryk - Quo vadis. Roman Néronien. Traduction nouvelle et complète par E. Halpérine-Kaminsky. Édition illustrée par Jan Styka. Gravure de G. Lemoine. Vol. 1-3. Paris [1901-1904]. E. Flammarion, Imprim. Lehure. 4, pp. [4], 291, plates 18 [including 3 double]; [4], 235, plates 15 [including 3 double]; 326, [1], plates 20 [including 4 double]. Pg. pp. of period.
Slight rubbing of spines, noticeable yellowing of paper in places (foxing); frontispiece and title page of vol. 3 indented in vol. 2 (after p. 140). Bound with a slipcase cover with a composition depicting Nero on a winged lion at the beginning of each volume. A luxurious French edition of the translation of "Quo vadis", decorated with 53 engravings based on drawings by Jan Styka and 123 woodcuts in the text, engraved according to drawings by the same artist by G. Lemoine. As it seems, the edition was created without H. Sienkiewicz's approval and even against his protests. After all, permission to illustrate the novel was previously given by the writer to P. Stachiewicz (cf. J. Krzyżanowski "H. Sienkiewicz. Calendar of life and works", War. 1956, s. 238). Extremely carefully edited publication, costing the publisher more than 100 thousand francs, was priced by Flammarion at 250 francs for the luxury version and at 75 francs for the basic variant. Despite the high price, the entire edition found buyers.