Vies Imaginaires.

Finely bound example. One of 120 copies created specially for members of Le Livre Contemporain under the direction of E. de Crauzat and A. Bertaut.

The work itself is a collection of 22 semi-biographical short stories about Petronius, Lucretius, Paolo Ucello, Pocahontas, William Kidd and other historical figures, first published in the newspaper Le Journal between 1894 and 1895. Incorporating myth and fantasy with historical facts, they are considered among the first of the genre of biographical fiction. Jorge Luis Borges was extremely fond of Schwob's writing.

Barbier's plates are devoted to the subjects that interested him most. While preserving the settings and costumes of their times, he makes them all inhabitants of an elegant, ambiguous country in which conventional expectations are invariably disappointed. Of particular note are the frontispiece, showing the muse of intimate history gazing into a globe and dictating what she sees to Cupid; Clodia accompanying her brother to a Roman brothel; and Pocahontas meeting Captain John Smith.b

Limited edition, one of 120 copies on vélin de Rives; 4to (27 x 25 cm); with 88 colour woodcut illustrations by Bouchet after Barbier, including vignettes and lettrines and 15 hors texte,; green morocco with elaborate inlay designs and gilt ruling, spine with raised bands and gilt titles, morocco doublures with silk patterend guards and marbled endpapers, marbled slipcase with corresponding green morocco entry, a fine example.