Hugo, Victor

Notre-Dame de Paris. Paris: Charles Gosselin, libraire, 1831

2 volumes, 8vo (8 3/8 x 5 in.; 213 x 128 mm). Half-title, list of author's works on verso, woodcut title vignette by Porret after Tony Johannot, preface dated March 1831; light spotting on half-title of second volume. Nineteenth-century dark-green morocco, gilt-ruled frames with ten fillets on the cover and six on the inside, edges gilt, by Cuzin, in a slipcase.

Vicaire 4: cols. 256-257; Ray, Art of the French Illustrated Book, 180

Notre-Dame de Paris. Paris: Charles Gosselin, libraire, 1831 2 volumes, 8vo (8 3/8 x 5 in.; 213 x 128 mm). Half-title, list of author's works on verso, woodcut title vignette by Porret after Tony Johannot, preface dated March 1831; light spotting on half-title of second volume. Nineteenth-century dark-green morocco, gilt-ruled frames with ten fillets on the cover and six on the inside, edges gilt, by Cuzin, in a slipcase.
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First edition, first issue of Hugo's Gothic Masterpiece. Gosselin published the novel on 16 March 1831 in an edition of 1,100 copies as was his usual practice. It was such a sensation that an additional three printings had to be published the same year. The first impression of 1100 copies was separated into four groups, each bearing a fictitious edition statement on the title-page, a scheme designed to make the public believe that the novel was selling rapidly. All four éditions are textually identical with the identical pagination errors in volume 2: "339" for 439, "391" for 491, and "395" for 495. The title-page of this copy has no edition statement. 

This is the rarest of all works by Hugo in its first edition. The work appeared in many languages; the English version as The Hunchback of Notre Dame. 

A splendid copy.