Books

First complete edition in English in book form of the author's famous adventure novel. This publication was instrumental in establishing Dumas's reputation as Victorian England's favourite French novelist, and was also the first English edition to include illustrations. The story was originally published as a feuilleton in Le Journal des Débats from 28 August 1844 to 15 January 1846. Dumas's captivating plot immediately caught the attention of those in England who could read French, and the absence of copyright meant that publishers rushed to capitalize on the author's popularity, with several English translations produced almost simultaneously. This London edition has priority as the first edition in English. It was published in book form in May 1846, after serialization in ten weekly parts from March 1846. In April, the Belfast publishers Simms and McIntyre issued a translation of the first part only, under the title The Chateau d'If: A Romance, in their affordable Parlour Novelist series, but the second and third volumes of their translation did not appear until September and October, respectively. Chapman and Hall's translation "took the English-speaking world by storm... 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 text is embellished with 20 engravings (18 more than in the publication in parts) after drawings by the Parisian artist Henry Valentin (1822-1886), produced under the supervision of Charles Heath (1785-1848) one of the most influential British landscape and figure engravers of the period. 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 that 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 by the Arabian Nights. The fearless Monte Cristo is a super-hero who overcome all odds" (Coward, p. xviii). 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" (ibid.). READ MORE Two volumes, 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. Frontispieces and 18 wood-engraved plates. Bookseller's ticket of Jarrold & Sons to front pastedowns, inscription of "Eaton" to vol. I front free endpaper. Spines browned, head and tail repaired, small patch of restoration to head of vol. I, inner hinges cracked but firm, some foxing to plates, penciled note to vol. I, p. 220, otherwise generally clean. A very good copy in bright cloth. Munro, p. 94. David Coward, "Introduction", in The Count of Monte Cristo, 2008.