The Road to Perdition

All Resolutions

He determined to follow her, in order to ascertain whither she would lead him—to Paradise or to the limbo of hell—to a gibbet or to an abode of love. Anything was a gleam of hope to him, in the depth of his misery.

Download smallest file size

Artist

Name:
Doré, Gustave
Dates:
1832-1883
Country:
France

Illustration

Subject:
Buildings & Monuments
Technique:
Wood Engraving
Engraver:
Lavieille, Jacques Adrien
Format:
Portrait (taller)
Source:
Old Book Illustrations

Book

Title:
Les contes drolatiques (Doré)
Author:
Balzac, Honoré de
Publisher:
Paris: Garnier Frères, 1881
Open Library:
View record

Description:

A young man follows a woman wearing a hennin through the streets of an imaginary medieval city. Houses are made of structures such as bartizans and oriel windows built on top of each other, and stretching to eerie and unrealistic heights.

This picture is an illustration for the story titled “How the chateau d’Azay came to be built,” from Droll Stories.

The caption reads in the original French:

Il se délibéra de la pourchasser, à ceste fin de savoir où elle le meneroyt, en paradiz ou ez limbes de l’enfer, au gibet ou dedans un reduict d’amours, tout luy feut espoir au fund de sa misère.

The translation provided here is from the edition published in London by the Bibliophilist Society, 1874.

Download json record

Share this: Share this page on Mastodon Share on Pinterest ▲ Top