Charles De Coster ( 1827-1879) was a Belgian novelist, writing in French, who stimulated Belgian national consciousness and prepared the ground for an original native literature. De Coster lived most of his life in poverty and obscurity and took ten years to write his masterpiece, The gloroius Adventures of Tyl Ulenspiegl. Freely adapting the traditional tales of the folk heroes Till Eulenspiegel and Lamme, he set his story in the 16th century, at the height of the Inquisition. The hero's father is burned at the stake as a heretic, and Ulenspiegl swears an oath to avenge him. De Coster's characters combine heroic qualities with a typical Belgian realism. His literary style is highly colored and archastic, being derived from Francois Rabelais, Michel de Montaigne, and 16th century historical chroniclers. With its theme of resistance against oppression, the book has been called "the bible of Flanders" and "the breviary of freedom." The contrast between Tyl and the traditional Belgian novels of the period is sharp and striking. Illustrating our beautiful book, Richard Floethe drew pictures in colors, bright, happy, rich colors. They appear to be slightly more subtle than the comic supplements of our Sunday papers, perhaps because Floethe started out illustrating children's stories. These are full of passion and understanding of the Flemish hero. For a printer, we are indebted to the plant of Johannes Enschede en Zonen, in Haarlem, Netherlands, where Jan Van Krimpen also designed our book. For type, Mr. Van Krimpen selected a quaint Type No. 432 in the Enschede catalogs, one designed by Pierre Didot and cut at the Enschede type-foundry in the early part of the 19th century. The type is lovely but full of irregularities, which is appealing to me. The letters g and y, for example, are distorted shapes. All of the type was set by hand. The paper was especially made at the Pannekoek mills, and is made completely of rags. It is a pure white in color, plain and yet elegant. The pages are deckled, so no two are the same. All of the type is printed in black ink while all of the illustrations are printed in colors, some with four bright colors, some with as many as ten bright colors. For the binding, we are gifted with boards covered with a fine quality of Dutch linen in a natural grayish shade. A coat of arms designed by Mr. Floethe decorates the end papers, and the same design is stamped in gold upon the outside binding, which is then embellished with stamping in bright orange and gold. All in all, this is a very gorgeous book, literally hand made by various craftsmen. This is copy number 946 of 1500, and it is signed by Richard Floethe. The offer includes the extremely difficult to find four page Limited Editions Club Monthly Letter. The offer should appeal not only to LEC collectors but also to anyone who enjoys folk tales and legends, a unique piece of Belgian history, or books that are beautifully crafted and illustrated. To quote Emerson, "Beauty is its own excuse for being." Thank you for reading this presentation, and good luck in your searches. Feel free to contact me with any questions.