Books

Paris, Charles Gosselin, 1831. Two 8vo volumes [205 x 126 mm] of: I/ (4) ll. for the half-title, title and foreword, 404 pp. ; II/ (2) ll., 536 pp. for part 2. Both titles are decorated with Tony Johannot's woodcuts engraved by Porret. Bound in blue half calf, flat spines. Reliure de l'époque. First edition of the famous and first great novel by Victor Hugo. Carteret, I, pp. 400-402; Escoffier 870; Vicaire, Manuel de l'amateur de livres du XIXe siècle, IV, 256-257. This copy belongs to the second state, with the author's name on the title and the fictitious mention "Seconde edition" below the title. "Since Gosselin's copy appeared at auction (Leroy auction, March, 26-27th, 1931, N°328), it became indisputable that the mention of a second or third edition doesn't take anything from the first edition nature of a book. Gosselin-Leroy's copy bore indeed on a fourth edition of Notre-Dame de Paris, 1831, the following autograph note: 'First edition published in 1100 copies that have…

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1831. The story is set in Paris in 1482 during the reign of Louis XI and follows the deformed bell-ringer of Notre Dame, Quasimodo, who falls in love with the beautiful gypsy, Esmeralda.