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Aeneas Press edition Victorian

Prince Zilah

by Jules Claretie 1840–1913

The book, and the century it came out of.

A Hungarian prince in Paris marries a beautiful young woman with a past he learns about from an anonymous letter on the wedding day. Claretie reported the Franco-Prussian War and directed the Comédie-Française for twenty-eight years; the Paris here — the boxes at the opera, the Tzigane orchestra, the duelling ground at dawn — is drawn by a man who had a reserved seat at all of it. Illustrated with 58 full-page plates — paintings by Manet, Carpeaux and Bazille among them.

Arsene Arnaud Claretie (commonly called Jules), was born on December 3, 1840, at Limoges, the picturesque and smiling capital of Limousin.
The first sentence of Prince Zilah
A note on this edition

Prince Zilah, by Jules Claretie, 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 232 pages
Reading time
about 5 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785486094231
The plates

58 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.

Costume Ball at the Tuileries Palace, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
Costume Ball at the Tuileries Palace Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux 1867
Cavaliers, esquisse, Józef Chełmoński
Cavaliers, esquisse Józef Chełmoński 1882
Autumn: The Woodland Pond, Narcisse Virgilio Díaz
Autumn: The Woodland Pond Narcisse Virgilio Díaz 1867
Stream of the Puits-Noir at Ornans, Gustave Courbet
Stream of the Puits-Noir at Ornans Gustave Courbet 1868
Landschap, Edmond Yon
Landschap Edmond Yon 1882
Aftenlandskap, Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps
Aftenlandskap Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps 1854
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 Prince Zilah as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of Prince Zilah as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

Prince Zilah, 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, 9785486094231, 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 Prince Zilah?
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. Jules Claretie'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 232 pages, which is roughly about 5 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
Prince Zilah
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