VOLTAIRE, Francois Marie Arouet de. Candide Illustre par PAUL KLEE. 246 pp. Avant-propos by Michel Cadot. Illustrated by Paul Klee with 26 black and white drawings throughout text. 8vo., bound in half morocco, paper over boards. Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 2001.

Fine edition in deluxe morocco binding. Includes a facsimile reproduction of the title-page of original edition of 1759 preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale. At the beginning of the Expressionist movement Paul Klee joined fellow artists Heckel, Kirchner, Kandinsky and Kokoshka in the production of books with original graphic illustrations. In 1911 he executed these twenty six pen and ink drawings for Voltaire's Candide, first published by Kurt Wolff in 1920.

Voltaire concludes his tale of the gullible young man who gradually sheds the excessive idealism and nebulous metaphysics taught him by Pangloss (read Leibniz) with the immortal final sentence: "Cela est bien dit, répondit Candide, mais il faut cultiver notre jardin." This French classic of world literature is printed on luxurious paper, includes the arresting Paul Klee illustrations and is handsomely bound in a deluxe morocco binding. As new.