Balzac, Grandville, and the Rise of Book Illustration

How the rise of book illustration affected the historic hegemony of the word is the topic of Keri Yousif's study of the complex relationship between the novelist Honoré de Balzac and the illustrator J. J. Grandville. As Yousif shows, the industrialisation of the illustrated book spawned a triadic relationship between publisher, writer and illustrator that transformed the book from a product of individual genius to a cooperative and commercial affair.