Michel Strogoff

Rare first edition. The first volume dated 4 August 1876, followed by the second volume published on 6 November with Un drame au Mexique bound in. All first editionswere published in 18° format. 

Half brown shagreen bindings, spines with four raised bands ruled in black and framed in black with with central gilt fleurons, marbled paper boards, paste-down endpapers and flyleaves of hand-marbled paper, sprinkled edges, contemporary bindings.

A handsome first edition copy of this celebrated Siberian adventure, attractively bound in contemporary bindings.

This first appearance of the text in book form was Jules Verne's preferred format, as Jauzac notes, instead of the more famous gilded publisher's bindings: "Verne cared little, it seems, for the outward appearance of his works. Likewise, illustration added to the text struck him as inessential. He would in fact give friends copies of the unillustrated 18° first edition [like this copy] rather than the large 8° volumes - admittedly more expensive! Without being able to state it as fact, it is probable that the author kept in his library only these small 18° editions of his Voyages extraordinaires, which he would always count by the volume (two for a work in two parts) and took pride in announcing a total of over a hundred volumes".

It was with the first edition of Michel Strogoff that Jules Verne began earning the considerable sum of 50 centimes per copy for volumes in this 18° format. The novel narrowly escaped Hetzel's suggestions that Verne introduce an additional character — "un occuliste attaché aux pas du héros s'obstinant à le guérir, ou un "petit chenapan héroïque" accompagné d'un chien qu'il offrirait à l'aveugle" (Embs et Mellot, Le Guide Jules Verne). Paradoxically, however, it was the publisher who was responsible for the novel bearing the resounding title "Michel Strogoff" rather than "Le Courrier du czar".

Jauzac, n° 10, p. 207.

Bottin, p. 69.