Inside the original 1910 version of this sumptuous binding laid one of the oldest and most effortlessly romantic stories ever written. The gilt and crushed blue levant morocco binding by Émile-Philippe Mercier contained Jacques Amyot's French translation of the tale Daphnis and Chloe. Daphnis and Chloe were the fictional lovers against whom all others can be measured. Separated by pirate abductions and battles aplenty, their true love prevailed and in the end they were restored to pastoral, wedded bliss. The original story was composed by the second-century Greek author Longus, a little-known writer assumed to have been a freedman of a Roman family.