Salambo

[1931]

Special Collections PQ2246 S3 E5 1931

Waltham Saint Lawrence, Berkshire: Golden Cockerel Press

Described in his Correspondance as ‘un travail archéologique’, Gustave Flaubert’s Salambo is an historical novel. Flaubert (1821- 1880) relied heavily on Polybius’s Histories (2nd cent. BC) and his visits to Carthage, in modern-day Tunisia, as sources for this work set in Carthage, after the First Punic War (3rd cent. BC). Named for the female character, Salambo, priestess and daughter of the Carthaginian general, Hamilcar, this novel has been described as ‘exotic’ and ‘decadent’ and is highly descriptive. This Golden Cockerel edition contains attractive wood engravings by the Irish artist and author Robert Gibbings (1889-1958).