The Story of Babar: The classic tale of an adventurous elephant that has enchanted generations of readers!

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There are now over 30,000 Babar publications in over 17 languages, and over 8 million books have been sold. Because you just aren't going to tell me that Babar made it from Africa to Europe in such a short amount of time. Laurent de Brunhoff’s Babar books include Babar et ce coquin d’Arthur (1946; Babar and That Rascal Arthur) and Babar’s Celesteville Games (2011).

The volume also includes a loving and perceptive introduction by Maurice Sendak and a photo story by Laurent de Brunhoff in which photos from his family's album and studies from his father's and his own sketchbooks provide a fascinating personal view into the world of Babar.De Brunhoff’s style is an illustrator’s version of Matisse, Dufy, and Derain, which by the nineteen-thirties had already been filtered and defanged and made part of the system of French design. Jean de Brunhoff finessed the characters in his initial sketches and crafted a handmade mock-up of the completed story in which he perfected the rhythm of the pages.

For all ebook purchases, you will be prompted to create an account or login with your existing HarperCollins username and password. This slipcase includes the following titles: The Story of Babar, Babar the King, Babar at Home and Babar’s Travels. The exoticism of the Babar story is obviously a Fifth Arrondissement exoticism, like that of the turn-of-the-century Douanier Henri Rousseau, whose harmless but rapacious paintings of wild animals, inspired by visits to the zoo, have much of the same sober charm as Jean de Brunhoff’s. The Babar series of books are recommended reading on former First Lady Laura Bush's national reading initiative list.

English translations of the original Babar books are routinely republished in the UK and in the US, individually and in collections.