Robida - La Tour enchantée - 1880

Robida, Albert. The Enchanted Tower.

Illustrations in black and six in color by Robida.

Paris, Librairie illustrée / Maurice Dreyfous; Tallandier libraire. Grand in-8. SD (1880). 48 pages. Publisher's binder in red percale with a floral design on the front board.

Original edition in its publisher's binder. Wear to the binder with rubbing on the boards and losses to the spine (see photos). Interior in excellent condition.

Draftsman, caricaturist and novelist, Albert Robida began his career in 1866 as an illustrator for Le Journal amusant and worked in several newspapers before founding in 1880 La caricature, which he directed until 1892. He illustrated classics of literature such as the tales of One Thousand and One Nights, the works of François Villon, Rabelais, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Swift, Balzac, etc. Albert Robida also writes and draws for youth. His best-known works include The Enchanted Tower (1880), The Journey of Monsieur Dumollet (1883). His most memorable contribution to the public undoubtedly is his adventure trilogy, The Twenty-First Century (1883), The War in the Twenty-First Century (1887) and Life Electric (1890). He is among the most famous illustrators of the 19th century, alongside Gustave Doré, Grandville, Gavarni, Job…

A year before this children's work, in 1879, he pays homage to Jules Verne in Extraordinary Voyages of Saturnin Farandoul in the 5 or 6 worlds and in all known and even unknown lands of Mr. Jules Verne.

Original edition, somewhat rare, of this work which deserves a restoration of the spine in particular, where the marvelous is very present (alchemist, devil, Satanas, Enchanted Tower) and whose exuberance is felt in Robida's illustrations.