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Monsieur, Madame, and Bébé — cover
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Aeneas Press edition Victorian

Monsieur, Madame, and Bébé

by Gustave Droz 1832–1895

The book, and the century it came out of.

Sketches of a French marriage: the courtship, the wedding night, the first baby, the nurse, the mother-in-law, the boredom, and a great deal that the 1860s did not put in print. Droz trained as a painter and exhibited at the Salon for a decade before a magazine asked him for sketches of married life; the book went through a hundred editions and was thought scandalously frank. Illustrated with 59 full-page plates — paintings by Waldmüller, Edmonds and Courbet among them.

Antoine-Gustave Droz was born in Paris, June 9, 1832.
The first sentence of Monsieur, Madame, and Bébé
A note on this edition

Monsieur, Madame, and Bébé, by Gustave Droz, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 208 pages
Reading time
about 4 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785486485688
The plates

59 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

Lovers Overheard, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller
Lovers Overheard Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller 1858
Lonely Landscape (Peasants´ Wedding), Adolf Kosárek
Lonely Landscape (Peasants´ Wedding) Adolf Kosárek 1858
La campagne au lever du jour, Théodore Rousseau
La campagne au lever du jour Théodore Rousseau 1859
Beach at Dieppe, Gustave Courbet
Beach at Dieppe Gustave Courbet 1870
Landscape with Sunlit Clouds, Dankvart Dreyer
Landscape with Sunlit Clouds Dankvart Dreyer 1844
Landscape near Vejby seen from the North. Afternoon Light, Johan Lundbye
Landscape near Vejby seen from the North. Afternoon Light Johan Lundbye 1843
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of Monsieur, Madame, and Bébé as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of Monsieur, Madame, and Bébé as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

Monsieur, Madame, and Bébé, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Salon & Steppe shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486485688, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of Monsieur, Madame, and Bébé?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Gustave Droz's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 208 pages, which is roughly about 4 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
If this one suits you
Monsieur, Madame, and Bébé
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