First edition of the famous and celebrated Public and Private Life of Grandville's Animals, considered the precursor of comics.The work was edited by Hetzel, de Balzac, Sand and other famous writers who wanted to give words to animals as a satire on 19th century French politics and personalities. Grandville's drawings influenced many generations of illustrators, including Walt Disney. The images, believed to be a study of contemporary French customs, depict animals with human bodies and attitudes and are accompanied by texts by some of the most influential French writers of the 19th century, such as Honoré de Balzac and George Sand. Although Grandville's drawings are sometimes unnatural and absurd, they usually display keen character analysis and wonderful inventive genius, and his humor is always tempered and refined by delicacy of feeling and a streak of sober reflection.