Pagnerre

First edition, without justification, except for the first two volumes constituting the first part, entitled Fantine. Issued less than a week after the first printing, this reissue of the two volumes bears the celebrated red-printed titles created by the printer Claye.
This type of copy, combining first-issue volumes with volumes using title pages bearing the justification, reflects the publishing history of the work and the publisher's editorial policy.
Contemporary half chocolate-brown chagrin bindings. Spine with raised bands decorated with gilt fleurons. A few scuffs to the boards. Traces of rubbing. Leaf 150 of volume 1 detached but correctly placed. A very fresh copy with a...

Second edition of the French translation prepared by François-Victor Hugo.

Half red shagreen bindings, slightly faded spines with four raised bands numerously framed in gilt and central gilt tooled motif, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, speckled edges, contemporary bindings.

Some occasional foxing, minor black specks on a few spines, upper corners of volume 10 slightly damaged.

Our set, attractively bound uniformly in contemporary bindings, is complete in 18 volumes including the often lacking final three volumes of apocryphal writings.

The first Paris edition, published simultaneously with the Brussels edition.

Most of the volumes bear a statement of fourth, seventh, or eighth edition.

Some foxing to several volumes.

Contemporary half tawny speckled sheep bindings, smooth spines decorated with double gilt fillets, red sheep lettering-pieces lettered "Oeuvres de V. Hugo", sky-blue sheep title and volume labels, volume label lacking from the fifth volume, three others partially lifting, marbled paper-covered boards, decorative endpapers and pastedowns.

Parisian first edition published simultaneously with that of Brussels. Seventh edition statement. Title pages in red and black.
Contemporary half black shagreen binding. Spine with raised bands decorated with blind compartments, series of bold fillets. Some scattered pale foxing on well-white paper. Handsome series agreeably bound.
 

First French edition, issued in Paris on 3 April 1862, simultaneously with the Belgian edition, here including the very rare suite of 20 engraved plates by Castelli and Neuville on heavy wove paper. This scarce suite was produced to illustrate the first edition of Les Misérables. It was sold separately, as a supplementary set, and is only very rarely encountered bound together with the volumes.
A particularly interesting copy, as it is composite, and perfectly illustrating the publisher’s commercial strategy, which divided publication into three issues (the first two volumes on 3 April, the following four on 15 May, and the final four on 30 June), as well as the story of the...