"A book should serve as the axe for the frozen sea within us."
— Franz Kafka
Gustave Doré | First Editions
1832 - 1882
Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré (6 January 1832 – 23 January 1883) was a French artist, printmaker, illustrator, and sculptor, working primarily with wood engraving. He was born in Strasbourg on 6 January 1832.At the age of twelve, Doré began carving in cement. Three short years later, he began his career working as a caricaturist for the French paper Le Journal pour rire, and subsequently went on to win commissions to depict scenes from books by Rabelais, Balzac, Milton and Dante. This was to be the start of a hugely successful career, in which Doré would illustrate the works of Lord Byron, Edgar Allen Poe, Cervantes, Coleridge, Milton, a new illustrated Bible, and many other iconic works. He is now considered to be one of the great illustrators of the 19th century, and his images remain highly collectible.
See below our stock of Gustave Doré First Editions, fine bindings, and signed copies.
Results 1 - 5 (of 5)
![Dante: Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise. [Divine Comedy] The Vision of Hell; The Vision of Purgatory and Paradise. DANTE, Durante degli Alighieri, Gustave DORE, Rev. H. F. CARY.](/pictures/thumb/51487DoreDivineComedy.jpg?v=1547505474)
Dante: Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise. [Divine Comedy] The Vision of Hell; The Vision of Purgatory and Paradise.
London: Cassell and Company, 1903. [Illustrated Literature] COMPLETE PARTS with fine engravings, a later edition. Quarto (34 x 27 x 12cm), pp.[2] 183 [1]; pp.337 [3]; pp.xxiv [2] xii. All 36 parts with 136 full page engravings by Dore, each stapled. With the preliminary matter and title page for volume... More
The History of Don Quixote.
London: Cassell, Petter and Galpin, circa 1880. DORE ILLUSTRATED EDITION. Quarto (32 x 27cm), pp. xxviii, 737. With 118 full-page engraved illustrations by Gustave Dore, as well as numerous in-text illustrations. Original half black morocco, gilt, over green cloth sides, marbled endpapers, All edges gilt. Mostly clean within, title page... More
The legend of Croquemitaine, and the Chivalric Times of Charlemagne. Freely translated from the French of L'Epine. Illustrated by Gustave Doré.
London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1869. Second UK Edition. Folio, pp.viii, 259; [1], blank; [4], advertisments. Illustrated with 177 designs on wood by Dore. Bound in recent half red morocco with gilt titles and raised bands to spine, cloth boards, top edge gilt. Light foxing within, externally fine. A handsome... More
River Legends, or, Father Thames and Father Rhine.
London: Daldy, Isbister and Co., 1875. [Children's Literature] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (21 x 15cm), pp.vi; 253; [1]. With four full-page wood engravings, including a frontispiece, and 38 further in-text wood engravings by Dore. Publisher's blue cloth with gilt titles to spine and upper board, elaborately decorated in black, gilt and... More
The Works of Rabelais, faithfully translated from the French.
London: Chatto and Windus, n.d. [1876]. ILLUSTRATED EDITION. Later impression. Octavo. pp. xxi, 640 [36]. With numerous engraved plates by Dore, including frontispiece and title-page vignette. In publisher's mauve cloth with gilt titles to spine and gilt stamping to upper board. Navy end-papers. Gathering loose facing p. 480, otherwise crisp... More
Results 1 - 5 (of 5)