Henry Monnier; Geo. Bonneron; Adolphe Guillot - Bas-fonds & Prisons de Paris – 3 volumes - 1862-1898

A beautiful set of three nineteenth‑century works, gathered around a single theme: the underbelly of Paris, crime, prisoners and the Parisian penal system.

The three volumes feature very handsome half‑leather bindings, spines with raised bands, with gilt titles and marbled boards. The covers and bindings are in very good overall condition, forming a particularly decorative ensemble.

Henry Monnier – The Underbelly of Society
Paris, 1862. A work devoted to the popular and marginal milieus of Parisian society. The 1862 edition contains 267 pages and is a work today kept and presented in the historical collections of the École nationale d’administration pénitentiaire.

Adolphe Guillot – Paris that Suffers – The Prisons of Paris and the Prisoners
Paris, E. Dentu, 1890, 499 pages. An important work richly illustrated with drawings after nature by Montégut, showing notably the penitentiary establishments, cells and various aspects of prison life. Some of these engravings are today used as historical documents by the ENAP. The work received in 1890 the Halphen Prize of the French Academy.

Géo Bonneron – The Prisons of Paris – Our Penal System
Paris, Maison Didot, 1898. An illustrated work devoted to the main Parisian prisons: Mazas, the Conciergerie, Petite and Grande Roquette, Sainte-Pélagie, La Santé, Saint-Lazare, as well as work, hygiene, education and literature in prisons. Bonneron had personally visited the Paris prisons to document his work.

Condition: very good overall condition of the three bindings, with leather and gilding well preserved. The interiors show foxing and some stains varying by volume, sometimes more marked on certain pages, as visible in the photographs. Nevertheless the set is solid and very pleasant, with numerous illustrations well preserved.

An especially coherent set blending social history, criminology, justice and penal history of nineteenth‑century Paris.