Les Misérables

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 few faint scattered foxing spots.

As the first edition of Les Misérables was published in four successive instalments, the release of each new set of volumes necessitated further printings of the earlier ones. The immediate success of the first two volumes—issued on 3 April simultaneously in France, Belgium, Germany, and numerous other countries—was so overwhelming that, as Victor Hugo had feared, Pagnerre's initial print run (6,000 copies according to Hovasse and 7,000 according to L. C. Michel in La Revue anecdotique, 15 April 1862) sold out almost immediately:

« Le 6, on eût battu toutes les librairies de la rive gauche et de la rive droite, pour en trouver un exemplaire ».

Accordingly, 1,000 copies were taken from the 5,000-copy Brussels printing intended for the Belgian and export markets to create a spurious French « second edition », which was in fact the Belgian first edition fitted with a newly printed title-page. By 10 April, however, Pagnerre was compelled to order a further printing, ready by the 17th thanks to the stereotype plates prudently prepared by the printer Claye during the first printing. Only the title-pages were newly printed from movable type, in red and black using antique capitals, « un des joyaux de son matériel typographique ». This new title-page was subsequently used for the later volumes bearing similarly spurious edition statements, which are in reality later printings issued to coincide with the publication of the succeeding volumes, allowing new readers to acquire the complete work.