Description
Maupassant has been widely, miscellaneously, and (in the main) indifferently translated…. It is a pleasure, therefore, for us to be able to announce that more than half of the contents of our Tales… have been put into English by a man who himself wrote exquisite English. He was Patricio Lafcadio Tessima Carlos Hearn…. Justin O’Brien has selected the stories which make up our Tales of Guy de Maupassant. He has also written the Introduction….
For our Tales of Maupassant Gunter Bohmer has created thirty water-colors, half of them full-page. They are water-colors of the utmost freshness, and neither he nor we can tell you by what magic a native of Germany living in Switzerland is able to capture the Gallic essence. A sun-drenched Norman hill, a bevy of gaily-frocked young women, a breezy seaside promenade, a scene of terror under the moon, a couple’s quarrel, a cafe tete-a-tete–these drawings, in their uncanny immediacy, tell us how intimately the artist has absorbed Maupassant’s climate…
For the text of our Maupassant Sir Francis [Meynell] has chosen 11-point Monotype Plantin on a 14-point base–the type thus has plenty of room in which to breathe. Plantin suits Maupassant well; for one thing it is, as he was, a native of France. For the story-titles and the decorative initials Sir Francis has chosen Vesta, a recent European type a little of which goes a long way….
The printing of the text has been accomplished by Kellogg & Bulkeley of Bloomfield, CT. The paper for our effulgent Maupassant has been specially manufactured for this book by the Mead Paper Company…. The binders’ boards are covered with a tough green linen that has been impregnated with pyroxylin to make it moisture- and stain-resistant. And you will observe that the borders are made up of the same scallopy elements with which Sir Francis decorated the story titles and the title page. These details have been carried out meticulously… at the Russell-Rutter bindery….
