Notre-Dame de Paris
An exceptional copy of the first edition of Notre-Dame de Paris, the only one recorded in full signed contemporary morocco
adorned with the interlaced monogram of the 19th-century bibliophile.
“This first edition, in beautiful condition, is the rarest of all the author's works; it had a worldwide impact
and it is one of the hardest to acquire from the Romantic period” (Carteret).
2 volumes 8vo: I/ (4) leaves, 404 pp.; II/ (2) leaves, 536 pp.
Blue morocco, triple gilt fillet framing the covers, interlaced MB monogram of a mid-19th-century bibliophile stamped in gilt at the center of the covers, raised bands on spine richly decorated with gilt, gilt fillets on board edges, gilt inner dentelle, all edges gilt. Contemporary binding, from 1848 onwards, signed by Petit, successor to Simier.
198 x 126 mm.
Hugo, Victor. Notre-Dame de Paris.
Paris, Charles Gosselin, 1831.
Extremely rare first edition in full contemporary binding with interlaced and gilded monogram.
What is called a “contemporary binding” is any binding made within a generation of the book’s publication date, that is, about twenty years.
Clouzot, 145; Carteret, I, 400-402; Escoffier, 870; Vicaire, IV, 256-257; Talvart, 16-17.
It was printed in only 1,100 copies divided into four batches, with the last three bearing the misleading mention “second,” “third,” and “fourth” edition—a marketing ploy designed to make people believe in the immediate success of the work.
In 1985, 36 years ago, a copy in contemporary half-binding bearing, like this one, the fictitious mention “second edition” sold for 100,000 F (15,000 €). (Ref.: Deux cents livres précieux. May 1985, no. 176).
More recently, in 2003, 17 years ago, Pierre Berès catalogued and sold for €56,000 another example of the second batch “bearing on the covers the indication of the second edition” (Ref. Stendhal, Baudelaire. Pierre Berès, Catalogue 92, no. 557. Paris, 2003; €56,000).
Copy from the second batch, bearing the author’s name and the fictitious mention “second edition” on the title page.
“Since the Gosselin copy was sold at public auction (Leroy sale, March 26-27, 1931, no. 328), there has been no further debate that the edition mention takes nothing away from the book’s status as a first edition.
The Gosselin-Leroy copy actually bore on a fourth edition of Notre-Dame de Paris, 1831, the following handwritten note: ‘First edition printed in 1,100 copies which, according to bookselling practice at the time, were divided into four editions. [Signed]. Charles Gosselin, publisher’ (Escoffier).
Michaud similarly concluded in the Bulletin du bibliophile, 1931: “The copies thus falsely labeled second, even third edition, genuinely belong to the first edition.”
In Notre-Dame de Paris, Hugo manages to give body and soul to the gigantic visions of his imagination, to breathe life into symbols, and to impose his most personal insights as historical reality.
The real hero of the novel is Notre-Dame de Paris itself, with its monsters, stained glass windows, and masses of shadow among the entwined columns. In this book, which originated in the contemplation of the Gothic monument, Victor Hugo has achieved a faithful literary transposition of architectural splendors.
How can one not mention, finally, the majestic descriptions of Paris from a bird’s eye view, of Notre-Dame, or the cathedral’s bells? Endowed with a strong dramatic sense further intensified by a terrifying realism, Hugo has given us in this novel some of the most striking pages he ever wrote.
Very likely one of the finest known copies, the only one listed in full contemporary red morocco binding, signed, and with provenance.
