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First complete English-language edition in book form, accompanied by a clipping signed by Dumas and notarized by John Sullivan of Jersey, the notary to Queen Victoria. Sullivan has inscribed the clipping, next to Dumas's autograph and printed name, "Signé par [Dumas] devant nous, John Sullivan [of] Jersey, Notaire Royal, Au Havre 1868". Dumas lived in Le Havre between May and October 1868 at the Hotel Frascati. During this period, Dumas met his erstwhile lover, the American actress Adah Isaacs Menken (1835-1868), for the last time. He also continued to write and give lectures. The successful lecture he gave at the international marine exhibition in Le Havre renewed his confidence and formed the basis of future lectures in Caen, Dieppe, and Rouen. John Sullivan (1813-1899) was a historian and prominent figure in Jersey who spoke the local language, Jèrriais, as well as French and English. Dumas may have previously met Sullivan during his 1857 visit to Jersey, around the time Victor Hugo invited Dumas to his home on the neighbouring island Guernsey. In 1855, Dumas expressed sympathy for exiled writers by publicly declaring, "My body is in Paris, but my heart is in Brussels or in Jersey", for which he was summoned by the Imperial Prosecutor (Schopp, p. 420). Sullivan shared his poetry in correspondence with Hugo, who called Sullivan "un vrai Poëte", and to Tennyson, who occasionally visited Jersey to see his brother. Among Sullivan's publications are La First complete English-language edition in book form, accompanied by a clipping signed by Dumas and notarized by John Sullivan of Jersey, the notary to Queen Victoria. Sullivan has inscribed the clipping, next to Dumas's autograph and printed name, "Signé par [Dumas] devant nous, John Sullivan [of] Jersey, Notaire Royal, Au Havre 1868". Dumas lived in Le Havre between May and October 1868 at the Hotel Frascati. During this period, Dumas met his erstwhile lover, the American actress Adah Isaacs Menken (1835-1868), for the last time. He also continued to write and give lectures. The successful lecture he gave at the international marine exhibition in Le Havre renewed his confidence and formed the basis of future lectures in Caen, Dieppe, and Rouen. John Sullivan (1813-1899) was a historian and prominent figure in Jersey who spoke the local language, Jèrriais, as well as French and English. Dumas may have previously met Sullivan during his 1857 visit to Jersey, around the time Victor Hugo invited Dumas to his home on the neighbouring island Guernsey. In 1855, Dumas expressed sympathy for exiled writers by publicly declaring, "My body is in Paris, but my heart is in Brussels or in Jersey", for which he was summoned by the Imperial Prosecutor (Schopp, p. 420). Sullivan shared his poetry in correspondence with Hugo, who called Sullivan "un vrai Poëte", and to Tennyson, who occasionally visited Jersey to see his brother. Among Sullivan's publications are La Chapelle de Notre-Dame-des-Pas (1889) and The Channel Islands Militia: A paper Addressed to the Men of England (1871). This anonymous translation of Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (1844-5) was instrumental in establishing Dumas's reputation as Victorian England's favourite French novelist. "It differs in minor ways from the standard French text but it's full and thoroughly readable... Most so-called 'new' translations published since have drawn heavily on it" (Coward, Note on the text). The 20 engravings which illustrate this edition were produced after drawings by the Parisian artist Henry Valentin (1822-1886) under the supervision of Charles Heath (1785-1848), one of the most influential British landscape and figure engravers of the period. The story was serialized as a feuilleton in Le Journal des Débats from 28 August 1844 to 15 January 1846. It immediately caught the attention of Francophone Britons, and a lack of copyright protections allowed various British publishers to quickly capitalize on the tale's popularity. This translation was serialized in ten weekly parts from March 1846 and published in book form in May. That April, the Belfast publishers Simms and McIntyre issued Emma Hardy's translation of Volume 3 only under the title The Chateau d'If: A Romance. After it proved a success, Simms and McIntyre issued volumes 1 and 2 in September and October. There was also a heavily abridged single-volume edition in 1846, its month of publication uncertain, translated by William Francis Ainsworth and published by George Peirce. In an 1857 article published in Dumas's own newspaper, Le Monte Cristo, the author recalled first seeing the Island of Monte Cristo in 1842, as he was sailing with Napoleon towards Elba. Dumas was so impressed by the island that he promised to the prince he would one day feature it in a novel. The plot came together some time later, based on an intriguing police case that Dumas found in the memoirs of Jacques Peuchet, a former police archivist. Dumas's masterpiece "is a tale of revenge and retribution which does not lead back to the Paris of the 1840s, but opens into a world of magic, of fabulous treasure buried on desert islands, of bandits and dark intrigue, of wizardry and splendours borrowed from the Arabian Nights. The fearless Monte Cristo is a super-hero who overcome all odds". The novel was overwhelmingly well-received by the public. Thackeray famously revealed to a friend in September 1853, "began to read Monte Christo at six one morning and never stopped until eleven at night" (Coward, p. xviii). READ MORE Two vols, octavo. Original green wave-grain cloth, spines lettered and blocked in compartments in gilt, sides blocked in blind with decorative outer border enclosing large central ornamental device, pale yellow endpapers. Housed in a custom green quarter cloth folding box with prison-cell motif on blue card sides. Frontispieces, with tissue guard in vol. I, and 18 wood-engraved plates. Signed clipping repaired with archival tape on verso. Vol. I with ticket of Milliken Booksellers, Dublin, on front pastedown, and late 19th-century ownership inscription of one Thomas Harris on front free endpaper. Spines toned, gilt bright, minor wear to spine ends, rubbing to sides, vol. II front cover faintly sunned at head, skilful repair to inner hinges, remnant of tissue guard visible in gutter of vol. II title page, a few plates with light oxidization and occasional splash mark, text generally clean. Overall, an excellent copy in the original cloth, rare thus. Munro, p. 94 ("an admirable rendering of the complete work on which most of the later translations were based"). David Coward, "Introduction", The Count of Monte Cristo, 2008; Claude Schoppe, Alexandre Dumas: Genius of Life, 1988.