Beschreibung:

Notre-Dame de Paris Victor Hugo 1831 [HUGO, Victor (1802-1885)]. Notre-Dame de Paris. Paris: Charles Gosselin 1831. First edition, first printing, first issue of Hugo’s gothic masterpiece, in a contemporary binding. “This first edition … is the rarest of all the works of Victor Hugo; it has had a resounding impact worldwide, and is one of the most difficult titles of the Romantic period to obtain" (Carteret). Copies of this issue preserved in contemporary bindings are exceedingly scarce; we trace only one in the auction records. Published on 16 March 1831 in an edition of 1100 copies, the first printing was issued in four separate groups of 275 each, with the subsequent three issues being fictitiously labelled as the second, third and fourth editions on their respective title pages. “The success of this darkly moving novel was immediate, establishing Hugo as the premier historical novelist of his time. Lamartine called him ‘the Shakespeare of prose fiction’” (The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French). This copy appears to have been a presentation from Hugo's fellow writer and acquaintance, Juste Olivier. Clouzot 86-87: “Les exemplaires de la premiere tranche, sans mention d'edition et sans nom d'auteur sont extremement rares”; Carteret Romantique I, 400; Lhermitte 317; Ray French Illustrated Book 180; Vicaire IV, 256. Two volumes, octavo (200 x 120mm). Half-titles. Wood-engraved title vignettes. (Some pale foxing at ends.) Contemporary tree sheep, spines gilt, red morocco lettering- and numbering-pieces (neatly rebacked with original spines laid down, repairs to corners, original endpapers preserved). Provenance: Juste Daniel Olivier, 1807-1876, Swiss poet (calligraphic gift inscription signed "Olivier" with red wax seal on front flyleaf, dated 19 April 1832, recipient illegible).